This also isn’t the first issue. Ignoring the stock maximization issues & issues like the Dreamliner mess.
This reason this is real real bad was because the 737 Max. The C suite said it was real come to Jesus moment. Now we’re finding out not only is the culture not fixed, but it has such mismanagement that there’s no effective QA.
It's even worse, because after the initial disastrous test flight of Starliner, NASA had ordered a review of all of Boeing's software practices (especially testing procedures), not just the Starliner code.
I'd imagine they'd have caught signs of these QA issues while working through the software stuff.
They can probably coast on prior successes for a long time. Not to mention many airline fleets will be older stock, the replacement schedules on those things can be long. A systemic deterioration might take decades until people notice.
