It has other issues too, grift, wokeism etc, but the FIRST thing it lost was its engineering culture, to be replaced with 'sales' and 'business' culture.
The IEEE did a study on the failure of the space shuttle boosters. NASA managers ignored the advice of their engineers who spoke up about the risks involved launching in cold weather. What was particularly interesting though was that that same culture decided on the company they chose to build the boosters, and rather than go with the company with the track record of success, they went with the company with the management structure they preferred.
Case in point, Boeing.
It has other issues too, grift, wokeism etc, but the FIRST thing it lost was its engineering culture, to be replaced with 'sales' and 'business' culture.
The rest followed.
The IEEE did a study on the failure of the space shuttle boosters. NASA managers ignored the advice of their engineers who spoke up about the risks involved launching in cold weather. What was particularly interesting though was that that same culture decided on the company they chose to build the boosters, and rather than go with the company with the track record of success, they went with the company with the management structure they preferred.