Most Western militaries are facing the same challenges. The reality is the traditional recruitment pool of 19 to 25 year old white males are becoming a smaller and smaller proportion of the population. In addition they have a range of career choices that are much greater than 30 years ago. In addition it is IMO important that the military broadly speaking, represents the general population.
For all those reasons militaries have to appeal to broader segment of the population. The problem is “leaders” that want instant results so they look good for their bosses. Exhibit 1 is ACM Wigston. Instead of taking a wholistic long term approach to identifying what actually works for attracting and retaining a diverse military, they game the system with quotas and other short term work arounds
The ultimate irony is the only senior officer who showed some principle and a spine was a female Group Capt who resigned rather than be complicit in this complete abdication of command authority.