I agree that this thread is important as this situation is spinning out of control. It is going to get much much worse in terms of incidents and accidents. Everyone is driven by the almighty dollar and aviation safety and standards is the casualty.Atleast pilots tend to have voice to say something about this situation.
Consider our engineering colleagues, they are further down the slope and they have very little voice in reality. I think long gone are the days you could rely on the guy coming up to sign your airplane to be a walking type specific data-base. The industry really worries me at present technically in terms of who is flying and who is fixing them.