RBA/BY, your point is well made and I too remember both the sense of security and the respect that was drummed into me when under instruction on the JP at the same time as you were. As a trainee trucker first the seat went, leaving only a parachute for the Varsity AFTS, and then even that went at the Hastings OCU (bad for passenger morale apparently).
The change in culture that you instance is what happens when an Air Safety system is deliberately and malevolently attacked. It is wrong to suppose that airworthiness alone was a victim of that attack in the late 80s/early 90s, every aspect of Flight Safety was hit; reporting, collating, rectifying, disseminating. Add to that the truculent view that "Safety is for Wimps" and you arrive at the cavalier practices found in this report.
It took mere months to destroy a system that had taken decades to build. It will take more decades to rebuild, and that has to start with an independent Regulator and Investigator, both of the MOD and of each other, in order to avoid a repeat attack. That is the point of an Investigation after all, to avoid a recurrence!
For too long BoIs/MIs have satisfied themselves with counting the trees when it is the woods that need investigating, and that can only be done by investigators independent of those with something to hide.