https://transitcosts.com/wp-content/uploads/NewYork_Case_Study.pdf

Sums up as incompetence at every level of the MTA. The MTA does not have the engineering staff to build its own subways, nor to design their own subways, nor to supervise the contractors who would do the above. For that matter, they cannot handle even simple capital projects at a reasonable cost.

And the leadership, who are mostly political hacks and career managers who haven't had an original thought in decades all drive and so do not use their own product. They also do not care nor want to learn about best practices for subway operations. Meanwhile the MTA, instead of developing in house capacity to handle capital projects, has created a stupidly complex rule book that inflates costs because for-profit contractors aren't just going to eat the extra costs of compliance.

Mostly admin costs and vanity construction projects. Spending on administration has doubled as a percentage of college expenditures, while spending on direct education such as instructor salaries has fallen by almost 50%. Some colleges now spend twice as much on admin as on academics. Every college now has its presidents, vice-presidents, deans, and sports coaches each getting a million dollars or more in compensation, and each requiring their own expensive staff, and each pushing for cushy sinecures for their friends and acquaintances.

Realistically, for the tuition charged nowadays by a typical American private university, a half-dozen students could pool their money and hire a world class specialist to personally tutor their small group full time.