Among other effects, Boeing lost focus and effective control over quality. One of the world's best aircraft makers seemed to forget that flying is an unnatural activity and that airplanes are innately prone to lethal trouble.
Critically, Boeing also chose to save money on its 737-MAX with an ungainly design that requires a high degree of computer control to maintain similarity with the handling of the previous 737. This led to two fatal crashes in Africa caused by peculiarities of the computer controls that Boeing's manuals and training did not properly warn against.
The recent door blow out was due to errors in manufacturing by the fuselage maker that Boeing had spun off years before. Now Boeing aims to reacquire what it once owned. This vindicates complaints and opposition by a prior generation of Boeing engineers to the McDonnel-Douglas managers.
"The problems with Boeing date back to the merger with McDonnel-Douglas. Oddly, McDonnel-Douglas executives ended up in charge"
I disagree. Because, the problems date back to Phil Condit holding a seat of decision making (1997) about the corporation's fate.
Prior to that, Phil Condit was possibly OK ("satisfactory") in "white collar" leadership positions up to and including Boeing 757 production. But perhaps not "satisfactory" on the shop floor, that he wanted to get away from. And Condit was not McDonnell-Douglas.
They need to fulfill current orders for 737 Max line. Then stop accepting new orders. They need to go back to the drawing board and completely redo 737 line even if it takes them 10 years to do it.
Boeing was a great company before they merged with McDonnell Douglas. The big joke with Boeing engineers is “McDonnell Douglas acquired us with our own money. “
I agree that Boeing made some huge mistakes. In fact i would argue that the 737-max problem was should have put some people in prison. But that does not mean people should blame them for things that they have not been proven guilty off. In fact these latest things that are more likely to be the fault of other people such as maintenance people.