Given the long wait times for patent prosecution, the USPTO had offered several ways to speed the process up. One of those, Accelerated Examination, offered the option of having the attorney certify much of the examination work in advance. We used the accelerated examination process several times, and got quite good at it. In one instance we received notice of allowance in less than a month! Nevertheless, it seems many attorneys did a poor job of searching (intentionally or unintentionally), so the original premise of faster prosecution was faulty.
Track One, or Prioritized Examination, is still an option for speeding up the prosecution process.