One can only hope that legislative action will begin to reverse this trend.
Whilst I can't comment on the US arrangements, the weakness in the European environment is not a lack of legislation or rules - in fact, EUR is awash with aviation rules - but commonly a lack of understanding of those rules by both regulators and industry people alike, and, in a small number of cases, a complete understanding of the rules but a lack of desire to comply with those rules. Those who seek to avoid compliance do so for a variety of reasons, some because they think they know better than the rules, some for an easy life - or a mixture of the two - and some simply because they do not know what they are dealing with. An over-generalisation, perhaps, but unfortunately I've seen it up close and personal, and I can quite understand how the latest generation of the 737 ended up in the mess that it is and also the premise of the BBC piece that prompted this thread.