I wonder if business mail is being handled differently than civilian mail - I mail letters to my Mother 1-2 times a week and standard delivery times have gone from (always) 2-3 days between Medford, OR and Mount Vernon, WA to 8-12 days for the last 4 letters I sent that she has received. And the most recent 2 appear to be on the same trajectory. It is sort of wild, though just an anecdote. I have been sending her letters for decades from various parts of the Western states and this has never happened before.
Various sources indicate that some post offices are specifically prioritizing the delivery of Amazon parcels (and presumably highest-cost business mail in general) over other mail, so it would make sense if civilian letters and postcards are eating the vast majority of the delay.
There were reports of live animal dying because of delays or prescription being missed.
I do see much less mail in mailbox than I had before. I also had informed delivery set up and now I'm told I'm not eligible (when it worked a month or two before). Frustrating, because this is time when the informed delivery would actually let me know if I'm actually missing some mail.
The real fact is you are being played in an election year game by the Postal Union whose declared who they are backing unequivocally. Go chat up a CCA, I have two I know and one lives in my neighborhood but it close to quitting now. They are basically the equivalent of those food delivery service drivers but without the freedom to choose when they work.
As in, they get shat upon by a small but not insignificant number of regular carriers who know how to game the system let alone see CCAs are beneath them in every way. You want the truth about how this service has been running for years, well before recent issues, just google CCA horror stories.
This whole debacle is an engineered slow down by the union using the typical quiet encouragement that never has official backing but crawls along emails and word of mouth.
The worst Post Office examples you see in the press have always been this bad. There is no consistent management across the system. One place is well run and the next can be nightmare fuel.
tl;dr this is all an election year con job designed to make you come to one conclusion relying on the disposition of many to automatically assume any negative story concerning the current administration is true; while the current administration sucks on many levels much of what is claimed isn't always exactly true.
ps: HN is being bombarded by thinly veiled election year propaganda and sadly eats it up. the number of stories deserving to be flagged reaches ridiculous levels at these times.
I'm sympathetic to the idea that mainstream media is a giant propaganda machine, and that the parties they focus blame on aren't necessarily the ones pulling the strings.
But how does your theory explain the sorting machines being scrapped, and more specifically DeJoy's order to not reconnect machines without his direct approval? Surely if he were an above board postmaster merely trying to reign in the union, caring about low level equipment decomissioning would be less of a priority?