What has suddenly happened to Boeing?
Donald Douglas is laughing in the after life.
The 70 year mission to destroy Boeing couldn't have been more successful.
The merger of McDonnell Douglas with Boeing allowed MD executives to infiltrate Boeing at the highest levels.
They bought with them the same philosophy which had ruined MD despite being the fighter builder of choice to the US military (F4, F15, F18).
It was incompetence which caused them to lose the lucrative fighter market to Lockheed Martin, which was then known for building primarily transports aircraft (C130, C5, C141).
What they brought to Boeing was a single minded focus to profit. The company HQ was moved from Seattle (the Boeing factory) to Chicago, which had no operational connection to Boeing.
Congress found this directly responsible in the 737MAX inquiry. Engineers were vetoed by business suits, who had no expertise to do so.
A critical training for a new system was not made Mandatory as advised by the engineers, but an extra paid option (to make more money).
This was predicted back in the 1990s. One wondered exactly who was buying who.
Remember, great icons are always destroyed from within.