Safety Concerns.
you have obviously experienced a severe breach in safety with an operator to make you go down this path (I suspect it was in some gash European Member State as you didn't appear to have an MOR path open to you or CHIRPS etc).
I answered you in the techie section with what I believed you were referring to, maybe I did you a disservice, playing down what I thought were non airworthy defects you were bemoaning (which do get "carried" in most airlines and even in the Airforce).
There has most certainly been an impact in Engineering cost in the last 10 years, it has probably manifested itself in many ways at different places. The biggest thing I started noticing a few years ago were the lack of spares kept on the shelves - Logistic managers seemed under pressure from accounts managers to clear the tens of thousands of pounds worth of spares off the company books and into far off owned stock houses/pool agreements etc. This made Hangar checks go late as lead times for spares crept up but who got the blame for aircraft returning late into service? The lazy Engineers!
We do our best to keep things safe (and I also do my best to help the aircraft flying and making money) but safety is paramount.
Good luck with you endeavor.
(I'm also in the ALAE so look forward to the report in the Tech Log)