Another problem is that all the expertise is at Boeing, not the FAA. Fauci is supposedly the top paid bureaucrat in the federal government at $400,000 a year or so. That means everyone at the FAA is making less than that. The people with the 50 lb. heads that it takes to design something as complex as a modern jetliner are getting paid well by Boeing, not working for the FAA so you end up with second tier people overseeing the designs that they're not capable of working on themselves. They don't have the expertise at the FAA to fully understand what they're certifying.
I think you’re exactly right, the best paid engineering jobs are not at the FAA, they are at Boeing or Airbus. So the most experienced and best qualified are not working for the government.