This all started happening with the McDonnell Douglas Take over. I forget who said it but it went something like McDonnell Douglas convinced them to let Boeing take them over with their own money. Boeing up until this point was run by the engineers. They put safety and quality first. McDonnell was run by the accounting department. Part of why they were in the position for Boeing to take them over I am sure... Anyhow, the McDonnell accounting department became the defacto group in control at Boeing within a relatively short time and since then Boeing has been making bad decision after decision. It has all led to this over about 20 years.

I talked to my now deceased uncle about it back then. He was high up in Boeing engineering and essentially said it was why he retired. He had no intentions of doing so but didn't wanted to be associated with the new products in development.