I think complexity + necessarily large organizations are a huge contributing factor. MCAS would have not been an issue is any one of the layers above engineeri

I think complexity + necessarily large organizations are a huge contributing factor. MCAS would have not been an issue is any one of the layers above engineering had questioned the decision to avoid training requirements (e.g. Boeing management, FAA management). Unfortunately, systems are so complex now that it was possible to summarize the details in a way that hid the necessary information. And when it went up further, even more summarization. It feels like this wouldn't have been as easy with simpler, older systems. I mean, presumably a manager could look at a biplane and say "Hey, that doesn't have enough thrust to weight."