Another former FAA security agent, Steve Elson, described very much the same thing worse - in some arenas. His account would scare anyone to death.
The problem is that the FAA not only taxes airline tickets as though they actually intend to do something about airport security or safety, but the same tax money is used for - ????
Tracing what little ticket-tax money is actually spent, and on what, is a topic in itself.
The U.S. Congress changed the law relieving the FAA of it's responsiblity for safety, Clinton did his trick with Presidential Executive Order 12866 & the rest is a tragic history.
When the GAO report on nearly zero legitimate airport security, the FAA had the position of saying, "So what, you changed the law." Thus we now face 6,500 innocent lives being wasted for airline profits.
Now, Congress passes the cash relief package which doesn't pretend to look at the profits siphoned off through the related holding corporations. Add to that the relief from legal responsibility for the airlines who are - in fact - responsible.
The political contributions were the all time greatest investment ever made.
Note that the FAA is NOT being held accountable. The investigation is guaranteed to be a whitewash.