What's interesting here I think, is the reflection of industry culture and corporate culture. There are very different mindsets required for different parts of the industry, and a "one size fits all" mindset does not work.
For the people who are flying and maintaining the aircraft, the exemplary forward progress of western aviation safety suggests that we're doing pretty much the right thing: carefully developing procedures and following them. For pilots and mechanics, the personality type whose first instinct is "hey, let's try something new," is quite wrong.
On the other hand, in spite of the senior management of the airlines trying to convince Wall Street that they are in an industrial business that involves moving metal around the country, they are, to their constant annoyance, in the hospitality business. In that situation, a culture of "These are the rules and we need to follow them without fail." is exactly wrong.
What works excellently for operations, works terribly for hospitality, and we are seeing increasing numbers of instances of the conflict between the two mindsets creating misery all around.