The merger with McDonnell Douglas in 1997 was part of the problem.
“The fatal fault line was the McDonnell Douglas takeover,” says Clive Irving, author of Jumbo: The Making of the Boeing 747.The 1997 merger that paved the way for the Boeing 737 Max crisis“Although Boeing was supposed to take over McDonnell Douglas, it ended up the other way around.”
Boeing was finished when the schmuck CEO moved corporate to Chicago because his wife liked to squander money on north Michigan Ave,
That’s it exactly. MD somehow took over the management of Boeing. It’s a case study in what NOT to do after a merger.
-SB