Bearing slides were so worn there were only pieces left. The resulting gap had caused some clothes to get stuck in the groove. A baby safety pin (with the thick plastic head) got wedged in the gap and made the problem worse by wearing the plastic of the drum support bearing out. Had I investigated earlier when it first started squeaking and clothes occasionally got jammed, I probably would have only had to replace the slides. But because we waited, we had to replace the support bearing too.
Extremely simple repair, and even though I was intimidated at first (probably why I waited so long to check into it) the videos on this site and others were the only resource I needed to get this job done.
Drying is currently purring like a kitten and I've ran 15+ loads through it since the repair!