176 bus route frequently stops short

Where we currently live, we don't have ready access into the tube network and so the 176 bus route is an essential service for getting into central London. It has become so common now for it to not run into central, that now when I leave the house, I just assume that it will only be running to, at best Waterloo but often only to Camberwell Green. What we inevitably have to do, is get buses, maybe with a change, maybe not, to Elephant and Castle and change onto the tube, because the 176 just never actually runs the whole route. If I can get the bus the whole way, it is so easy and comfortable and convenient and its affordable too. The change to the tube at Elephant and Castle takes ages, the Bakerloo line is really slow, it doesn't take us to the area in central where we want to be, and it makes the journey cost 3x the price. I can just forget about trying to get the bus home too. There's rarely any information about it not running from central too, you just sit around like an idiot for an hour at the bus stop waiting for a bus that never arrives. Can I ask a serious question here? Are TfL deliberately running the bus service into the ground so that people are forced to get the tube to increase their revenue? I really don't think its possible to run a bus system with such atrocious service levels without it being a deliberate goal to get people to stop using the service.