The IRS is a perennial budgeting football for Congress, even though it's one of the few agencies for whom increasing their budget creates positive net revenue for the federal government; its enforcement arm is down 30% in staffing since 2010, with predictably dismal results.
As an anecdotal comparison, I had a fairly long-running issue years ago with the IRS over a minor problem (some expenditures got posted to one fiscal year for the IRS, the following fiscal year for the SSA, which created an imbalance in their systems), and I was able to promptly get helpful folks on the phone and via scheduled in-person visits. Now even my CPA can't get anyone to pick up the phone there. It's a disaster.
As an anecdotal comparison, I had a fairly long-running issue years ago with the IRS over a minor problem (some expenditures got posted to one fiscal year for the IRS, the following fiscal year for the SSA, which created an imbalance in their systems), and I was able to promptly get helpful folks on the phone and via scheduled in-person visits. Now even my CPA can't get anyone to pick up the phone there. It's a disaster.