I mean, I think a lot of it is the modern state of Twitter-news. Nobody outside of Pittsburg would ever hear this story, unless it was spotlighted by John Stossel as an argument in favor of home schooling or some bullshit. And, of course, "Things are going normal and good" never makes the news, so its very hard to get an idea of what is happening year-to-year when all you ever year about is the Exceptions without regard to the Rule.

Is this simple incidental mismanagement? Or a systemic national problem that's just bubbling up into view? I'm primed to believe its more a consequence of the big shutdown last year, where demand for (and therefore contract with) bus drivers fell off a cliff. And now we're scrambling to staff back up last minute because that's just how Americans do things.

If it feels like a speed run to collapse, I suspect that's only because we weren't aware of how dysfunctional we've been operating as a society for decades. We may have actually kinda crested in the 70s and now everything looks downhill by comparison. But I'm inclined to believe things have been worse. And I'm also inclined to believe they're far from impossible to make better.