There are of course many different reasons to "we just cant build cool shit anymore", but one is not understanding tradeoffs. I think it is more likely for eve

There are of course many different reasons to "we just cant build cool shit anymore", but one is not understanding tradeoffs. I think it is more likely for everyone involved, team, management, project, product, client, end user etc, to understand & accept that you have to make tradeoffs when you are on a tight time frame and/or budget. You solve one thing, not a hundred different things, even though they can be equally as important in the grand scheme of things. F-35 tried to replace fighters in three different branches (Air force, Navy and Marine) and be multirole and also do close ground support, all with a long time frame and huge budget. Some tradeoffs can be solved with a bigger budget, but many tradeoffs can't. If you want your bombs to be stored inside the fuselage to be more stealthy like the F-35, then of course the fuselage will become bigger, thus creating more drag. No amount of money will change that. F-35 seems from the outside like a project that didn't understand & accept tradeoffs.