I have experience of two rapid decompressions, one in a military jet, the second in an airliner. The military jet was a non event - except for my $12 Casio which exploded.
In the airliner an outflow valve - the valve which controls the rate at which air leaves the pressure hull - suddenly, and inexplicably, ran to the full open position. The climb through 34000ft changed very quickly to a descent to 10000ft. Because of the aircraft performance - it has the aerodynamics of a house brick - and the pressurisation system doing it's best to compensate we managed to get down before the cabin went through 14000ft and the masks dropped.
The failure of the valve couldn't be anticipated nor was it down to shoddy maintenance; it simply was a failure of an electro-mechanical component.
Every time you drive your car you make the assumption that the brakes will work when you press the pedal or that the the steering will work when you want to turn...but there is always the chance that they won't.