The OP is very well put and illustrates the de-professionalising and de-skilling of so many key jobs across swatches of industry in design, manufacturing, testing, operations, IT, even marketing, and indeed management across the piece (not just in aviation). We have moved to a world run by accountants who see fit to load company balance sheets with colossal amounts of debt in the name of 'efficiency', which puts ever increasing pressure on those down the corporate food chain to ever increase turnover and margins, create new profit centres and cut costs far past the bone, and certainly as far as the business can get away to stay compliant and viable, and to do so as quickly as possible. Preferably last month, or last year.
As with so many things, in the end it comes down to cold hard cash.
- Design, R&D and IT is expensive, good design, R&D and IT is very expensive and time consuming.
- Training (air crew, designers, IT developers, management, what have you) costs money, good training cost alot of money.
- Experience is expensive; those who have been there/done that, cost alot more to employ and are less willing to just unquestioningly do what they're told, than young, cheap, yes-persons hoping to build a career by 'finding solutions' to keep their boss happy and in turn theirs and so on.
- Testing, testing, and more testing is expensive and takes time. You boss asks (ie demands), can you just get it out...now!
Above all, do nothing that sucks up cash flow and takes profits off the bottom line. So, much of senior management is too remote from the actuality to even begin to understand the consequences of the decisions they make and instructions they give (not just in aviation). Worse still, a great many simply don't care because all they care about is themselves. Their pay and bonus. Their position. Who they mix with. How much time they spend on their yacht or play golf. Which brings me to this comment;
Originally Posted by
YGBSM
When I retire I won't give a flying f&%k what happens. Go play some golf
This sentiment was brought to the silver screen in the great 1950s British film '
I'm Alright Jack'. A remake should be made, but this time staged at a fictitious aircraft manufacturer... You can imagine the rest.