As for algorithms, some are from government employees, but most are from private mathematicians.
"SHA-2 is a set of cryptographic hash functions (SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512) designed by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and published in 2001 by the NIST as a U.S. Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS)."
Thanks, but I think we are referring to two different things. You are referring to the algorithm which Bitcoin is based on, which indeed is the product of the NSA. I was referring to algorithms in general (and ciphers), which are usually, though far from always, the product of the private sector.