The first step to privatizing a public system is to first sabotage the public system so thoroughly that people are actually genuinely furious about it, so that when privatization is suggested, it can pretend it's exactly the solution to the problem that's been invented and for awhile, it will actually seem like an improvement, long enough to cement it in place so that future governments will not be able to gain any traction if they try to undo it. It has to be done this way so it becomes a fait accompli.
The mismanagement of public services to make them seem wasteful and dysfunctional is very intentional on the part of both our governing parties.