I’ve determined conclusively that running:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Is what started this problem. I have downgraded and saw the problem go away, upon upgrading again the problem returned.

What I can tell is it appears to be tied to RetroArch emulators. BEFORE upgrading I would notice the command line after exiting an emulator, before ES reloads.

I also notice the command line right after launching an emulator from ES (right before the emulator starts working).

AFTER upgrading, I still see the command line after an emulator is launched, but the moment I exit an emulator the screen goes blank before kicking back to ES…

It appears that the screen is being blacked out after exiting an emulator. That black-out persists after exiting EmulationStation…

For the mite being I’ve restored a backup made pre apt-get upgrade and am working fine… This essentially appears to be a bug in RetroArch under the newest firmware for RPI, and as such should be fixed…