The De Havilland DH-106 Comet, which underwent explosive decompression at altitude. The Lockheed L-188 Electra, which shed its wings midair. The Douglas DC-10, which had a poorly designed baggage door
and which AA used an unapproved maintenance procedure on and of which several were lost. Were all developed in an era completely different from today. And as has been pointed out the MD-80 wasn't a systemic issue at all. It's one thing to make a military aircraft totally dependent on computerized flight controls just to keep it in the sky, such as the B-2 Spirit, and many other tactical aircraft. But, a commercial plane the logic is highly questionable. It isn't at all acceptable in commercial aviation when pilots aren't confident with an aircraft and have to be hyper alert to its quirks. Boeing has gone from the most trusted to the least trusted overnight.
As to US regulators being trusted as the gold standard globally, well, that's yesterday...when America was respected for it's technical prowess and expertise. This story is interesting, despite it's leftist slant.
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...porate-america
The idea business can or will self regulate in the public interest is absurd. They can't, they won't, and nor should they! That's akin to telling a Lion it shouldn't eat the Zebra. Another recent example was Volkswagen and dieselgate.