The rate hikes are happening because the USPS today is nothing more than a cushy government job with a fat retirement pension exclusively for black women.
It’s actually a two-tiered system. The actual USPS employees have a fat union contract which grants them benefits that even normal federal employees don’t have access to. They basically can’t be fired, even for not working. This is offset by hourly contractors who do most of the actual work, about as well as you would expect based on how little they are paid.
There is no hope of reforming the USPS until their union is busted. You can’t get rid of them without amending the Constitution. Fortunately, no one really needs them anymore.
My local USPS (weekday) delivery guy is real nice (Japanese-Hawaiian) and he stops and chats with me in Japanese to make sure I don’t forget too much.
The weekend guy is a youngish (20s, maybe) that just drops (literally) the box in front of the door without even knocking, and scoots off.
I usually hear the box hit the front door (and usually the boxes are heavy boxes of cans of food, which end up dented because of that).
On the other hand, I know exactly the type you are talking about. Most of those here on the islands are the ones behind the counters, and are very rude. Also, many packages ‘disappear’ from behind those counters.