In QC, though, there haven't been any failures for life to happen between.
How big does a failure have to be to qualify? Dora driving Marten to break up with her was a failure; Faye drinking herself out of a job was a failure; Sven failing to live up to Faye's expectations was a failure. Even QC isn't all fluffy clouds and bunny rabbits!
Those are all very old, though. The most recent one you're mentioning happened two years ago. (Or 550 comics, if you prefer.) The only real failures I can think of since then are Faye drinking once, and Claire's horrible attempt at setting up Clinton with Emily.
Continued in a moment, first I want to insert this quote:
Recently we had a rather nasty bit of fail when Bubbles' memories turned out to be gone, meaning she'd spent the last few years in indentured servitude for nothing.
See, the problem is, that's not an actual failure. There's a big distinction between 'Something bad happened' and 'Our characters failed'. That wasn't a nasty bit of fail - Faye and Bubbles got everything that they needed to succeed, handed to them on a silver platter, and have been blindly stumbling upward.
It's specifically since the start of the creepybot arc that I've seen this. I'd hoped that once the arc was over, that would be that, but Faye and Bubbles continue to not have to struggle with anything.