Leadership to fix this crisis doesn’t only have to come from the POTUS, but Biden has assigned a chief to deal with this as far back as July and that guy is already negotiating some of the solutions (extra shifts at the ports, UPS/FedEx, and large distribution centers like WalMart).
Part of it is a lack of investment in the ports for decades. This isn’t donor class; it’s voters complaining about too much spending.
Part of it is a lack of government will to impose any basic regulations on transport companies to be more efficient when their communication/planning for fear of being anti “free market”. There is no shortage of plebs screaming “SOCIALISM!!1!” at any suggestion for minimal regulation.
The only “huge profits” I see here are international shipping companies who can’t legally be campaign donors in a US election. The reason I see why Biden or Newsom haven’t done something significant to fix goods transport is that half of the country is busy calling them tyrannical for masks and vaccines while claiming they shouldn’t be in office due to unverified claims of election tampering. It looks like we are one spark away from a civil war and appearing to nationalize shipping or trucking companies is a delicate proposition.
I suspect both don’t yet see the supply chain issues as their top priority, but I’m increasingly thinking they should. I think it’s a significant contributor to inflation over the next few months.