Really makes you wonder if they have a point about elite overproduction. Greater Boston has 70+ colleges and a very highly educated population, arguably the most well-educated among all large metros in the country[0]; yet with a budget of half a billion dollars per mile, they ended up with something broken, with something as fundamental as the track gauge!
The chief thing to understand about the MBTA (and many other things about metro Boston), is it's a patronage system at heart. Jobs to friends, and jobs to allies. That's it. Stripping the system and the public in order to pay for nice homes on the Cape, and to pay for nice retirements in NH and Maine.
MBTA administration is day camp for the adult children of Boston Brahmins. The operations department, OTOH, is full of the hardest working and most passionate people you’ll ever meet.
Naturally, those operations jobs tend to attract more transit riders and lovers, who are disproportionately POCs, low income, or disabled. But the working conditions are abusive and exploitative - especially for anyone who cares enough to speak up about the dysfunction. Check out the FTC’s report on dispatcher shift lengths, for example. Or TransitCenter’s report on obstacles to operations hiring.
The T can’t hire bus drivers, even with a $7k signing bonus, a massive ad campaign, and a recession. It’s worth asking why.
If the T ever improves, it will be because the people who rely on it are in charge. But your assessment is bang on. Given how much power those in charge have amassed, I don’t see it happening.
[0]: https://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-public-affairs-and-commun...