I think you've got the right idea here. A program that has only one applicant for an adjunct slot may be a program that's already troubled. If so, there should already have been signs of that. Otherwise, however, I'm cautious about going all Ward Churchill about Barrett and Frisch. They're adjuncts, for goodness sake. At the same time, I'm aghast that higher education increasingly relies on adjuncts, losses people of terrific quality like Invisible Adjunct, and sucks people like Barrett and Frisch through the system.
I think you're right that one doesn't want to overplay the Churchillian analogies.
On the other hand, Frisch is actually a bit more complicated than an adjunct. She was, if I'm recalling correctly, a tenure-track appointment at the University of Oregon, where she failed to receive tenure. She also has some government work (NSF, I think) behind her. Barrett's more of a typical post-doc adjunct.
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