I've noticed this as well. Wife needs a new car and we visited several dealerships over the weekend and none of them have any inventory. I'm talking literally NO new cars and none on the way anytime soon.

Then, I took a trip to Walmart through a small town about 10 miles from my home. I rarely go that way, but noticed almost all of the stores (local small mom/pop) were all closed down. Store names were taken off the buildings and it looked like a ghost town. Wierd I thought.

Then wife and I went to the Mall of Ga. and I noticed only about half the retailers were open and all of them were had limited inventory... everything seemed picked over. Several restaurants that were doing fine before covid were out of business.

So I'm starting to think the OP is right. The supply chain is drying up, but it's not being talked about because it would cause a panic.