ATC staffing has always been the victim of the push for “smaller government” and shrinking budgets by a set percentage without actually analyzing the consequences. Even 10 years ago, my large TRACON had too few controllers per shift to staff all RADAR positions. Throughout each shift, we were forced to combine and de-combine RADAR positions that should have been left split due to volume, but we simply didn’t have the people due to congressionally mandated budgets and set controller workforce numbers.
And while automation advances have assisted controllers in doing their jobs, and have maybe reduced the years needed to train new controllers, automation doesn’t talk on the radio.