What happened to being prepared??

In the last two weeks I have been very frustrated with those in my profession. When given a task I am not one to wait until the last minute, just ask my kids. I am on top of them to finish projects and reports weeks in advance just so they don't get into the procrastination mode so prevalent in our society. When I am the counsel preparing a stipulation to settle, I usually get them out within one week of our discussions. The adversary has plenty of time to review the document and make comments and suggestions and allow for some back and forth with me in plenty of time of the next court date. When I am the one review such a document, I again have my response complete within days and forward it to my adversary, again in sufficient time to either avoid the court date entirely or have things worked out in time. Inevitably, what is happening more and more is my adversary chooses to leave the review of whatever documents they have in their possession until one or two days before our court date. Of course I always follow up well in advance to check on the status of theses things and I am always put off by secretaries taking messages. I have been told by attorneys that they have been busy and that they have other matters and just couldn't get to this case.
This excuse never fails to incense me. Never do I use such an excuse and let me tell you, I know few attorneys who have schedules as busy as mine. Not to say my practice alone is overwhelming, but couple that with my job as wife and mother of four and tell me who has less hours to spare in a 24 hour period. I challenge any adversary to put their schedules up to mine and then tell me they couldn't fit in what I have managed to do. Certainly my reputation proceeds me and most judges will rely on my information and numbers because they know that I am usually quite prepared when I discuss my cases in chambers. My clients also know that they get the best money for their dollar with me in that I rarely force a case to go to court if we can avoid an appearance. So what is it with my profession????
This is extremely frustrating to me and difficult to rationalize to my clients. If we all got on the same page perhaps we could turn the tide of popular distrust of attorneys as a whole and get back some of the respect those of us who are committed to our profession deserve.