If there were a long term plan (which I simplistically termed "space internet"), then there would be a way to address this. Instead, it appears as if they are trying to keep old equipment going rather than investing in a new, upgraded communication system that could be leveraged not only by future missions, but also added to by private companies in the future.
Congress would much prefer that NASA ask for money to fund a new system that creates new technologies than just fund old dilapidated tech. That's the issue, and NASA doesn't seem to get it. Is it dumb? Sure. But that's politics, and as a government entity (my personal favorite, in fact) they just aren't doing a good job here.
One last thought...I envision 100 years into the future that there are communication nodes all over the place, such as a big transmit/receive array physically on the moon, at various lagrange points across the solar system, all based on lasers, quantum tech, or whatever the futuristic long-term thing needs to be. Frankly, my concern is that we'll still be doing the same old thing 100 years from now. And while you may scoff at that (and I hope you're right!), remember that NASA does not currently have the technology to do something we last did 50 years ago (put a man on the moon). So I think those fears of a stale and stagnant NASA not knowing how to move forward are at least somewhat valid (even if I can't express it as well as I'd like).
Where are you getting all this? Surely not from this little Ars Technica article.
It's the system needed to talk to specifically deep space satellites and space probes. It's the thing talking to the Voyager probes all the way out past the heliosphere. It has trouble raising funding because it has to be spread around the world and thus doesn't result in as many jobs across different states.
Such a system doesn't really have commercial value (yet) because there aren't really any deep space privately operated probes. Privately owned things are close enough that they can either talk directly to the ground using their own much smaller base stations, or hitchhike on other networks (eg TDRSS, geostationary relay sats or Starlink).
The problem is also especially bad with these small satellites. The big crewed vehicles would be less problematic since they can have larger more powerful transmitters, which therefore won't require as much DSN attention.