Yes it was. Primarily intended for military missions, it was expensive, inefficient, delicate, and dangerous. The military ended up flying a minority of missions and giving up on it. The Shuttle finished out its life doing busy work that could have been accomplished by much cheaper and safer rockets.
Still, it was a symbol of American prestige for many years.
It was, and the two losses ... primarily the loss of life associated with them ... hurt personally. Columbia, in particular. I was doing contract work for NASA at the time.