The UK CAA is suffering a crisis that is not of its own making, first all the really good people see that there is no future in being a regional office of EASA and go back into the industry or off to EASA HQ and then Brexit turns up and they are faced with regulation of the UK industry when all the experienced people have left the building.
my personal experience has been that all parts of the CAA apart from the pilot side of FCL have always been very helpful with parts of the airworthiness system going well out of their way to assist in some very difficult situations.