Lack of infrastructure and technology brought on by a lack of interest in capital investors in favor of cheaper foreign labor and processes. In addition, and I’m going to get a lot of flack for this but this is what I truly believe, the gross excess of power held by labor unions who don’t want to see shipbuilding jobs become more efficient and more automated, thus needing fewer laborers per shipyard. Also, lest we forget the fact that the same labor problems that have plagued every other American manufacturing industry in history, played no small part in shipbuilding as well.
But what do I know? I don’t build the damn things, I just try to keep them from blowing up or running into other things…