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Interesting you should mention that, my good HI! I did indeed think about it, but I concluded for myself that Gandalf indeed deliberately broke his staff in a final desperate act to get rid of the Balrog and let the fellowship continue their journey with the haste they needed.
How did I come to this conclusion?
Well, knowing that Gandalf walked in M-e already for a very long time, about 2000 years, and all that time with the very same staff. I think that over that period of time you know every inch of the staff and the exact amount of power it can hold. After this I reasoned that Gandalf knew the amount of power that his spell should hold, for he himself unleashed it on the bridge. The most logic conclusion seems that Gandalf knew that the power he released during that spell was too much for his staff... and therefore broke it knowingly.
greetings,
lathspell
P.S.: it is exactly what you said as a kind of afterthought, but I think that this should not be counted as an accident!
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'You?' cried Frodo.
'Yes, I, Gandalf the Grey,' said the wizard solemnly. 'There are many powers in the world, for good or for evil. Some are greater than I am. Against some I have not yet been measured. But my time is coming.'
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