Remember: Airbus is essentially a GOVERNMENT PROGRAM in France- Having worked for the government let me tell you this- I would not want the people I worked with running a candy store, let alone building an airplane ( or controlling my health care)
Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't do or teach become govt employees.
I think the biggst problem for Airbus was that they should have kiboshed the A380 back in the late 1990's and developed a true 777 competitor back then (Airbus actually had a winner in the A330-200 but didn't cash in on that success).
Meanwhile, Boeing's gamble on the 777-300ER has paid off BIG TIME despite the high price for the plane, and 787 orders are massive indeed.