I haven't followed this in depth, but what I have read has been interesting. I know CASA has more power than most Govt Depts (rightly or wrongly) but what you've been going through, Glen, is not unique to Aviation. Any Govt Dept is in a position of power and can throw their collective weight around in a similar vein with little chance of redress. As you say, it takes 'one' person/activist to get 'one' other on board and then all bureaucratic hell can be unleashed on the unsuspecting.
Robert Gottliebsen (The Oz) has for years been campaigning on behalf of small business against the behaviour of some sections of the ATO for example. There aren't many people who know the 'real' story of Hoges vs the ATO, but what Hoges did for Australia is without question. Michael Cranston was apparently Hoges' principal ATO antagonist but perhaps instead of chasing Hoges for a few million over near decades, he could have spent 5 minutes looking over his son's hundreds of millions of obvious and blatant tax fraud activities.The incidents may not be the same, but the results are - destroying the small guy with the enormous weight of bureaucratic power. I've been involved with a couple of exercises (albeit FAR smaller and less consequential) in a similar vein, one has now just ticked up twenty years.
These issues always escalate with 'you' constantly fighting their collective intelligence, unlimited budgets and the tiny egos of those who have never, ever done anything for themselves but are expert in pointing out why 'you' can't. I am forced to the opinion it is in part jealousy, and they are 'projecting' the reason for their own fears/failures onto 'you'. Also, as another wise person told me 'If you pay a group of people to find problems and investigate them, they will do just that and find incredibly complex solutions to problems they discover that never existed before.'
Keep it up Glen, I admire your tenacity.