Actually, I thought the same thing. The catalog is broke (on purpose), but true, faithful, useful anons find ways around it. That way, normies and newfags have to get/do their (probably low quality) research someplace else and the shills find something else to do.
Don't know why the catalog is frozen, but I hope that BO notifies us someday as to whether it was sabotage, IT screwup, internal fuckery, or a way to clean out the less worthy/useful posters.