Actually, Amazon has turned Amazon into this experience. For the few cents of savings, these ship-to-USPS services are really the worst of all worlds, and USPS seems to get shafted with the entire blame because "derp derp the post office is obsolete" (you know, ignoring the actual increase in amount of general package traffic).

Anything I've had shipped Priority Mail has been handled well and on-time. The people at the counter at my local post office are fantastic. The actual letter carrier seems to be somewhat lazy when it comes to actually taking outgoing mail (and getting this fixed doesn't seem easy), but for the most part USPS works and has become my preferred shipping option.

Unlike UPS/Fedex, when you've got to ship something out, you can do it for a reasonable rate rather than the ridiculously jacked-up rates for people without a pre-negotiated shipping account. And you're in for a surprise when you end up missing a UPS/Fedex package and find out how out of the way their pickup centers actually are. (Also, there are plenty of remote addresses UPS/Fedex simply won't service.)

I completely agree in scaling back government, but the negative focus on USPS is yet another example of the entrenched unaccountable bureaucracy redirecting your anger away from itself and towards cuts of real infrastructure and services (which you'll eventually cry uncle for and re-fund). Please, don't fall for it.