The trajectory is the same, although obviously it's not ideal that the backlog grows at roughly the same rate as we merge/close them. Perhaps some day the Foundation will have enough $ to actually fund the spec core team to work on MSC review as their dayjob; meanwhile it's done in spare time or smuggled in as part of their dayjob.

Meanwhile, the fact that MSCs are being opened as fast as ever shows that folks are trying to nudge the protocol along as much as ever.