Is this a nation wide problem? USPS

Yesterday I had to go to the post office, second time this year. I had a couple of things to mail and I knew postage had gone up, no problem, I put on stamps and dropped in the post office on my way to the other house, to pick up some penny stamps. I had a lot of work to do, and didn't think it would take long, but when I got there there were no stamp machines, and the line was out the door. So, I lost an hour waiting in line to buy some stamps. When I finally got to the front I asked they guy how come there are no stamp machines. He said, some genius decided they didn't need them, he said if they still had the machines half of the people wouldn't need to stand in line. So is this a local problem? a local genius or a nation wide problem?