The question that seems to be studiously avoided is why, Why is there a shortage of priests in the U.S.?
“Why is there a shortage of priests in the U.S.?”
For me personally I could never see taking a vow of obedience to a bishop; this was the root of many of the problems solid priests had for leaving. If your bishop (not one you were installed under, but a replacement further down the road) is a freak, you’re in for a rough time.
See Jim from C-Town's #4 above. Homosexuals and feminazis have driven many, many orthodox Catholic men away from the priesthood, both at the diocesan level and later at the seminary level. God sends us vocations to the Catholic priesthood, not to the feminist priesthood, or the gay-friendly priesthood, or the liberal Episcopalian priesthood. If you chase off the authentically Catholic men, you're left with nothing.
The seminaries today are much better than they were even 10 years ago. More importantly, the bishops are better. When our previous bishop left, we had IIRC ONE seminarian. That bishop's vocations director -- I'm not making this up! -- had just left the priesthood to get married.
Now after 8 years of our current bishop, we have around 30 seminarians. Mostly what's changed is that the young men trust him to send them to orthodox seminaries, and let them be Catholic priests after they're ordained.