Many articles about the 737 Max crashes have been talking about how it’s largely a systemic failure of the process due to the US culture of deregulation. That would make this both attributable to the agency and to the funding in a way that is complex and hard to separate. As I understand it, the agency has been allowing airplane manufacturers to essentially do their own testing more and more over time, despite the obvious conflict of interest.
Came here with the same thought. It's not just the culture at Boeing. We see this everyday in US on different levels of administration. This country is simply owned by corporations and while deregulation was great for the progress which built it, it's not ok anymore.
