During a mishap investigation fault/blame is not assessed nor is anything discovered during a mishap investigation allowed to be used against anyone.
That is to ensure complete honesty and openness with the mishap investigators, to make sure we know what happened and why, to avoid losing anymore platforms and pilots.
Mishap investigators do not hide the truth, unless it was like the F-117 mishap before it was declassified.
So we have the mishap investigation conducted with complete honesty.
When you are conducting a mishap investigation you have access to all sorts of information.
During all my investigations I've never seen a mishap investigation where the process was corrupted
Never.
Given your cynicism, how many mishap investigations have you been involved with that gives you a contrary position, where you have access to the data and know, know the process was corrupted?
During other periods of my career, I witnessed incidents involving the Air Force that were stonewalled/whitewashed: one was an incident where an A7 impacted a hilltop in Hawaii and an Air Force investigative team was sent to accompany me to the wreck site. They carted off some parts with them and claimed that all of the pilot's remains were recovered. I climbed to the wreck site a few weeks later and the majority of the wreck and pieces of the pilot were still there. I recovered as much I could find of him and brought it back down, The Air Force wasn't happy with me for discovering it.
Another incident a long while back was when the Air Force dropped cluster munitions on our artillery battery position in Vietnam. Through the grace of God, only a handful of Marines were lightly injured in the attack. An Air Force investigative team interviewed all of us to see why the weapons weren't more effective (!) You can imagine how happy we were with that approach..
The other incident that stands out was the Thunderbird crash and while back where the entire team hit the ground together. At the end of their investigation, congress wanted to see the videotape of the accident and formally fought to have it released to them. The won their care in the courts but the Air Force general in charge erased the tapes rather than turn them over.
I wish I could tell you that our system is built on integrity and "let the chips fall" ethos but from what I've seen, everybody is far too interested in promotion and the 7-figure incomes that come from a successful GO retirement.