Has anyone seen the letter that is circulating that supposedly comes from a senior administration official that basically describes the shutdown as a permanent means of shrinking the government, rather than a temporary standoff over border funding? It was published on a partisan site that I'm not going to link to, but the gist of it was that there is no interest in resuming/preserving most of the functions that are currently shut down, so it doesn't matter if it goes on forever because, from this perspective, the government is working better now than when it is fully operational.
But objectively speaking, this level of dysfunction is rare. It isn't like teachers worrying about summers without pay, or construction workers coping with weather-related shutdowns, or even autoworkers dealing with every-few-years layoffs based on economic ups and downs. This has now happened twice (shutdowns long enough to impact pay). Twice. In the 60+ year history of the federal government as we understand it today.