The FAA amd CAA are responsible for the certification of these new airplanes from the design through production, testing and delivery. I agree with you that many on this board diss Airbus because of the "French connection" which is kind of juvenile. What I tend to look at are the little things that Boeing does (and MDC used to do) to please the airlines because their profit margins had to be met. As long as Airbus has part of their costs born by their mother countries, they will never learn what true competition and customer satisfaction is all about.
They do tests and destroy stuff, but they don't sacrafice a whole plane like in the old days. They have enough data so that "if its fixed, don't break it"
One of the great things about living in Phoenix is that Boeing does heat testing of new designs here in the summer. We got the first 747-400 and the first 777, it was cool to be able to see them coming in and out on a blazing hot day.
As for the ripping of Airbus, yeah, its irrational, good thing everyone here likes Brazil, otherwise Embraer would be villified!