Does Civil Affairs in the Army get respect and is it interesting work?

I've heard mixed reviews. As far as respect, I heard that while active duty Civil Affairs is under Special Operations, they often get attached to conventional units. I heard that even the Civil Affairs females can get attached to combat arms units as it's usually the infantry units and others who patrol the teams into the villages to do their work. Some infantry guys have told me they didn't care because it's just another mission, others have said they think it's stupid to have to escort CA into town and sit around pulling security for hours. As for the interesting work, some CA people I've talked with have said they hate how much paperwork they have to do plus it's all the same thing essentially going to villages and giving them money to do work or building schools or water sources and that while it can be worthwhile to see the finished project used, it's very boring overall having to meet with them tons to get projects done. Do they do anything else besides that? Any interesting projects like working at negotiating with high level power figures in these countries or is it mainly dealing with the people at a village level?