Found it!
I had to read almost to the end to find the real source of the problem. “Navient has only existed for a few short years, ever since it split from Sallie Mae back in 2014.”
Spun off from a quasi government agency. To me that explains everything. I now wonder Who & What (agencies) in the federal government have been protecting Navient and will they reup as soon as the whistleblowers start blowing their whistles.
What isn't being said here is that Sallie Mae itself was a scumbag quasi government agency. Navient was created to help the ObaMao administration assume complete control over student loans but give the public the veneer of competition.
There are now a mere handful of alternatives to scumbag government student loans. Hillsdale College bans government loans but has their own group of lenders (offering better rates) because they tend to graduate students with the training and character to pay back the loans. The Bank of North Dakota is another good example. Although the bank is state owned, its default rate is near zero because they strictly limit loans for useless degrees and professional students.