It (infrastructure) may have had some attention before....but since the Minneapolis bridge collapsed in 2007, it's been more in the news both local & national, especially during that time.......about the nations aging infrastructure.....roads, bridges, dams, etc.
The thing with this dam & Cali....they weren't paying attention to the dam(s) problems because 'hey, we haven't had a need to worry about it for 40+ years' but what they forgot was the reason the dam was built in the first place and now they are going to see what their choices have done. Too bad the innocent people will have to suffer for it though