Certainly on the -400 in BA Iīd say the relationship is pretty good. Neither they or us want to go unless itīs safe to do so.
Whether stuff gets fixed is a different matter. Generally if itīs allowable then it gets deferred. Engineering has taken its share of cuts and job losses and sometimes it shows out on the line.
Sometimes disagreements occur, i.e not fixing an APU before departing to MEX. As the operating crew, we knew it would cause big delays and payload problems out of MEX on the return, however the engineers were only concerned with avoiding any departure delays being put down to them. Engineers parting words out of the door were " The delay is not down to us is it?"
Perhaps these guys are being pushed too far?