Idiocy - or any DMV

If there is a den of state incompetence more visceral than the California DMV then I am beggared to conceive of what that could be (with the exception of its prison system which is in direct confrontation with the courts on the issue of cruel and unusual punishment). 

Witness me, mild-mannered, punctual, and polite.  I have an appointment to take my written driver's test (an additional indignity in and of itself given that I have held driving licenses in four other states).  Assuming that there would be paperwork to complete before I sat for my exam (which I naively assumed was the purpose for the appointment), I arrived twenty minutes in advance.  When I approached the line for folks with appointments, I was brusquely asked for the time of my appointment, and after providing my printed confirmation of appointment (something no one else seemed to have) was told that I could not enter the line earlier than five minutes prior to my appointment.  So, the appointment time is actually an appointment to enter the line to wait, not to engage in the transaction for which you have made the appointment (despite that you are required to provide then making the appointment).  You wait in line to prove that you have the paperwork for an appointment, and then told to sit and wait your turn to speak with one of the clerks.  In that queue, you receive no advantage for making an appointment, and are served in the order you finally made it to the check-in line.

When finally, 45 minutes after my scheduled appointment I was called to take my written exam,  I proceeded to a dirty, nasty room without chairs and supervised by a state employee with but one speaking volume - loud, who when not correcting exams (I was one of only 2 people out of ten taking the exam who passed), was dealing with "difficult" cases from the main room.  Not a reasonable testing environment.  It staggers me that as a society we sent people to the moon using little more than JP4 and transistors, yet we cannot figure out how to take the stupid out of people, or execute a smooth operating plan for the DMV.