The image of the FAA being on some sort of high ground should rankle fair minded observers. In the many months of discussion on PPRuNe, it became obvious that this supposedly standard-setting body would have had to take on or divert substantial staff just to cover the Boeing work. It's even conceivable that new premises would have been needed to house enough skilled teams. What we had was a, "They wrote it, I signed it" means of not spending all that government money. I can even understand finding it not in the public interest to rewrite the mountainous piles of technical information Boeing produced. After all, who could know more about the content than Boeing? What could possibly go wrong? Well, what did go wrong. "They rote it, I signed it", was a real face into camera confession.
It's not that the unthinkable has happened that rankles with me, it's hearing the FAA echoing from the high ground - where in reality, they should be going to the same sack-cloth and ashes tailors as Boeing management.