eselect profile list fails

Hello, everyone,

Could use some help.

eselect profile list gives this error on all my boxes:
!!! Error: Failed to get a list of valid profiles

All boxes have identical setup, all are amd64.

ls -l make.profile gives
make.profile ->
../../var/db/repos/gentoo/profiles/default/linux/amd64/23.0/desktop,
whose contents are:
eapi  gnome/  parent  plasma/  systemd/

I run openrc and xfce4 with a smattering of rarely used gnome/kde/
apps. For the most part I run a stable system, with occasional use of
~amd64. I keep up-to-date with portage. My systems have been very
stable, although I am wrestling with the recent python upgrade, with
sound support on one box, and the recent spate of kernel upgrades. The
problems with eselect profile list have existed for months and predate
my current issues. This problem has just now arisen to the top of my
TODO list.

The error message doesn't give me any guidance. The usual Googling
doesn't uncover much except recommendations to update portage, which I
do very regularly.

Thanks for any ideas on where to start looking!

John Blinka