LA Security: Near Meltdown?

   Coming out of LAX on United this morning, I endured a security system that seemed to  me very near collapse.  You  had to line up on the street to get ID'd before you got into the building.  You checked your bags and then you hit a queue that extended out of the TSA area halfway into the terminal.  Time spent in the security line: just about exactly the same as time spent in the air on the flight to SFO.  Security people kept waving customers out of the queue for impending flights (Any passengers for 8:23?  This way!).  The lucky (?) few would tumble out of line and dog-trot down the corridor: I assume they were getting screened somewhere but I couldn't see it and I couldn't help but wonder if they were just waving some of them all the way to the gate.

I have to admit it seemed oddly orderly withal.  An argument that I'm exaggerating is that TSA personnel didn't seem particularly stressed, as if this is their life every day.  Maybe it is their life every day.