Cool... That can be so frustrating.
I think many of us take our aging, years old, cables for granted.. Not just power, but audio.
It's always a good idea to once in a while do the "wiggle test" on all your cables with the rig setup and recording.. In the middle, on the ends, etc. And then review the waveform for any blippage.
But sometimes too much heatshrink, etc, on a cable can actually make it more fragile than if it didn't have it (beacuse it can act as a lever and concentrate force). And a wiggle test may cause a cable to fail.
In your case you had a high current draw/short, so a wiggle test might not have revealed it.