it had to be in the sequence Brett is talking about and the others are alluding to.
If the axle busted(just up and busted for whatever reason including alien intervention) it would flail around and possibly damage the parts it could come into contact with.
If it bent, again due to whatever offroading or otherworldly forces, it would just keep rotating and probably stay in the joint, just moving in and out on both ends.
If it happened at once, catastrophically in one big go, you may see something like this, but if it happened slowly, you would feel the axle being out of balance. It doesn't take much to make the driver feel an out of balance rotating item such as a driveshaft, axle, wheel, tire etc.
If you hit a curb hard, or were offroading and hit something like a rock that was poking up right on the axle, then just drove around till it let go, sure, maybe.
But much more likely is the scenario Brett and the others are talking about.
