I have to agree with AAFA in that it seems extremely unlikely that the gate agent is "asleep". AA1878 isn't the last flight into BOS by a long shot, so it's not like a graveyard shift where someone could fall asleep on the job. I've taken both AA1878 and AA1334 [DFW-BOS] several times recently, and there's never been a major problem.

With the layoffs and furloughs, I think the airport staff is just shorthanded. If your flight was delayed by 1 hour, then the gate agent [possibly the only one working at that hour] was probably busy greeting another flight which has arrived on schedule.

Now, gate changes at DFW, that happens to me a lot when I connect through from NRT. These days, I'd suprised if the gate printed on my BP matches the actual departure gate.