The debate is always interesting and while there are still many things that still need to be improved and made to work better in the world of military aviation safety, I stand by the comment that a lot has changed for the better. Most of that is cultural and hard to quantify. However, by way of example, I remember organising a safety related conference in 2003 where as an SO3, I was the highest rank in the room. I couldn't even find an SO2 to do the welcome speech. A similar event 8 years later saw 2 Gp Capts fighting over the opening speech. When I first started working in safety it certainly wasn't seen by my peers as a good career move. Now 12 years later a job in safety is becoming more of a prerequisite for promotion.
A real example of improvement is to compare the old signal Flight Safety report process with what we have with ASIMS. Whilst there are some issues that the MAA might not have dealt with from the past, to suggest that they have made no attempt to do the right thing is very unfair indeed.