The cost and availability of ammo today is such a combination of factors it might be termed a "perfect storm" except for the fact that a perfect storm implies it is the worst (most perfect) combination of bad things possible, though sadly, I think things with ammo can still get worse, thought we hope for the better...
those of us with long enough memories got kind of spoiled in the 80s and into the 90s because ammo and component costs were just slightly above what they had been in the 70s and were pretty stable for a long time.
then fuel costs jumped about a third then more after that, and ammo is heavy...
And pretty quick ammo cost jumped a lot. Bought a box of Rem .45 Colt, cost $18 same stuff a year later was $28...
Add in lots of other factors over time, including rising cost of raw materials and growing industry in China, India and some other places buying large chunks of the available world suppy (where before they had not nearly as much) further increases in fuel and transportation costs, and on top of it all, the changing value of our dollar, LOTS of things (eventually everything) went up.
And in the past decade you've got political worries upping demand, (panic buying creating shortages) and then finally and most recently the virus pandemic and its effects on both demand and resources, and here we are at a time when damn little ammo is readily available and none of it at anywhere near what was its historical relative price.
I think the last couple years have given us a very good lesson on the pitfalls of a "Just in time" economy when it comes to manufacturing, in particular. Not having inventory of parts or even raw materials sitting around does reduce overhead costs BUT your profit relies on a steady, uninterrupted flow of what you need, and we've lost a lot of that recently. Things are coming back, (thank goodness there's toilet paper again
) but things are never going to be exactly like they were before, again...