The legitimately difficult thing that Bend has gone through is very rapid growth/change. It had like 20K people 30 years ago. That's not easy, and I do feel for people who miss the smaller size.
That said, there are tons of small towns that are not growing - indeed, they're kind of stagnant, population-wise . Lakeview, Oregon had its heyday in the 1960ies in terms of the population.
