SEPilot,
That occurred to me many years ago after discussing handling probs and the small tailplane with an AA "Scud" driver.
Douglas pretty much bankrupted itself into the hands of McDonnell by building tough airframes. When the St Louis outfit took over the financial reins, its first civil creation, the DC10, was pretty much a General Dynamics fuselage mated to a Douglas wing - primarily because DC9 demand was putting a strain on the Long Beach facilities and it was more cost effective to build the fuselage elsewhere.
The over large tailplane of the DC10 was a cheaper alternative than an active de-icing system and the MD-11 contains hall marks of fighter thinking in its wing position, the redesign of the tailplane and many of the handling features.
I've yet to meet anyone in engineering or who flies the MD-11 with anything really good to say about it.