WWW- exactly my point, they do not have a remit to promote, only regulate . The FAA is required, note, to promote aviation!!
I must say that in my experience, notwithstanding my comments above, I would not say that they were as "clued up" as you might have expected or desired.Possibly this may have been due to all the umpteen regulatory changes we've had recently (whose fault is that?) but a lot of it is due to folk being put in charge of sections they have no experience in: Ex-military/north sea pilots regulating on shore SE operations; Ex-military catA1 instructors who have never taught in a civil environment in charge of flight instructor and FTO/RF regulation; Heavy jet engineeers put in charge of light aircraft regulation " I'm sorry I've only got experience on large aircraft.." etc etc With the best will in the world sometimes they really haven't got a clue!! As I've said before some have been bloody good types, though.