Has Apple Mail become a bit messy?

I have, for sometime, been aware that many users, on this forum and elsewhere, believe Apple Mail to be wonky. This is the first time I have run into any issue that makes me think I might agree. My issue with Apple Mail has to do with the visual quality of the user interface.

Apple Mail provides an adjustable horizontal slider/divider that allows one to view the content of individual emails while looking at a mailbox’s list of available messages. This allows reading of emails without having to open individual emails.

Recently, I lowered the slider/divider to the bottom of the mailbox window and it became non-functional…I can’t move it back up. I have been able to correct the situation by running Disk Utility, but the corrected state only lasts as long as I don’t turn off my MBP. When I restart the laptop, I have to run Disk Utility again to get things working…until today. The Disk Utility repair no longer fixes things.

Any thoughts as to what the issue might be and how it might be repaired?