Closure Of Amphur Immigration Offices?

Today I was forced to make the 150km+ trip to Chiangmai to renew my O visa because the Amphur office at my home town of Fang has recently been closed down - it's now apparently merely a police reception point for illegal immigrants.

At Chiangmai there was a stack of boxes containing the files, including mine, from the Fang office.

What was also interesting was that this was not the only stack of file boxes - there were a number of them, suggesting to me that a number of other amphur offices may have been similarly closed down.

It is also apparent that the approval point for extensions to "O" visas has shifted from Chiangmai to Bangkok.. What used to take a week from Fang is now taking a month - because, according to the chief honcho at CM (I had to speak to him about a consequent timing problem with mine) the approving officer (he made it clear it is his "boss") now has to approve "thousands" of them and the "delays are lengthy".

Cost cutting? ... or just more tightening up via central controls??