I think that's at least equally the fault of the visitors center as anything about the instrument itself. The visitors center gave a very much working instrume

I think that's at least equally the fault of the visitors center as anything about the instrument itself. The visitors center gave a very much working instrument a "historical monument pickled in time" feel. I think there is a reasonable case to be made that the ultimate cause of the collapse was that not enough was spent on the visitors center, leaving guests with the impression that it wasn't a valuable instrument, leading to sustained absolutely minimal funding, leading to deferred maintenance (since they preferred to spend the money they got on actually operating!), leading to collapse. So perhaps think of this in the future if you're about to criticize a scientific instrument for frivolous spending on visitor center upgrades.