Where have all the instructors gone? They're waiting for the student to be ready before they appear.... Any decent instructors would have gone into hiding to avoid teaching the wrong thing as mandated by the "authorities". Either that or they had learned as much as instructing could offer, and went off searching for more challenges. Some of the shortage is possibly created simply through the power of suggestion. There doesn't have to be a shortage of something to ensure demand drives prices up. Oil is a classic example of the market being manipulated by talk and nothing more.