For PICO-8 0.2.68 with Mac OS Sequioa 15.5, if I try to use my game controller it keeps on connecting and reconnecting after a few moments of not pressing a button. I get the red notification that pops up from the bottom of the screen in PICO-8.

Meanwhile, the controller works well for games hosted on lexaloffle (no disconnection notif etc), as well as other games or button press testers. So it seems to be isolated with the PICO-8 app itself only.

From my experience, I suspect it's probably due to a lack of bus power.

On a power-saving PC such as a laptop, there may be a lack of power if external storage is connected.

Also, power control may not be working properly. There are cases where resetting the NVRAM and SMC has been shown to improve the situation.