This was the same information I was relayed over drinks. This information is also supported by both Sikorsky and Bell’s stealing away many excellent engineers from Boeing.
This got significantly worse after the McDonnell Douglas acquisition (which followed McDonnell basically messing up Douglas' airliner business). Although nominally Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas, an aviation analyst described it this way: "McDonnell Douglas in effect acquired Boeing with Boeing's money." Their management moved in to key positions and there began almost a war over the future of the company between the engineers on one side and the bean counter and sales guys on the other. Before the merger you had the 707 through the 767 and early 777s, afterwards you had the 787, 737 Max and the KC-46. MDD types didn't believe in major investments in new, possibly risky projects. Richard Aboulafia, with the Teal Group put it this way: "Some of the board of directors would rather have spent money on a walk-in humidor for shareholders than on a new plane,"
I'd describe it as prior to that acquisition and the move to Chicago just a few years later, Boeing was an aircraft and aviation company; after that is was a financial conglomerate one of whom's revenue streams happens to be aircraft.
