It doesn't really matter - in a strange way,
because nobody can, or will ever, point a finger at one person/organisation and clearly state 'this is the git who caused it to happen'. Without a culprit you can't, really, do anything about fixing it.
BWoS, arguably, were in the wrong because of delays, snags still not sorted, reducing number of airframes for increased cost, ancient working practises (I expect, one day, to find the control wheel was hand carved from Tibetan Mahogany with deep sea free range pearl inlay), and so on.
The RAF, on the other hand, had a meeting every second Tuesday, at which the committee members (all 2* and up) read well preserved copies of 'The Eagle' from the 1950's-60's, paying extra attention to the cutaway drawings and the future predictions, before redrafting the air staff target for the Nim MRA4.
The MAA regularly reviewed the MRA 4 safety case, and found themselves compelled to reject it as 'potentially not safe', becuase it included the word 'Nimrod', in fact the latest such rejection counted up to 378 such occurrences and accused the IPT/BWoS of 'reckless Nimrodism of the worst kind'.
The CS overseers were appalled (a quotation directly attributed to a specific episode of Yes Minister), as there was a brief 'window of inopportunity' during which it was conceivable that the senior staff would have to buy their own lunch.
The PM and his 'homies' simply saw the cost and blanched... unfortunately when you don't apply the screening process (IQ etc) to politicians that the RAF applies to picking its aircrew, tradesmen, and - let's try not to say this offensively - dog handlers, then what do you expect by way of government other than weasely opportunists?
There were sundry objections from gun runners, drug cartels, and the current head of what was once called Northfleet who strenuously objected to unwarranted oversight of perfectly legitimate submarine evolutions west of Faslane, and Tommy Sheridan - whose peace campaign struck a particular note with a group calling themselves 'the old lags of D wing'.
To make up for what has been seen as "a bit of a downer", according to a Downing St analyst, it is strongly rumoured that Mr Cameron is going to announce the opening of a new Spitfire OCU in the summer, as everyone really wants to fly one of them anyway.
Dave
Apologies to dog handlers, but Jack was a good laugh and I meant it with my tongue firmly in my cheek.