> Avoiding politics completely, so the FAA has been systematically understaffed for decades because of this current administration?

The former FAA administrator was pushed out (by Musk) after one year of a five-year term. FAA employees were encouraged to resign (https://www.opm.gov/fork).

The current (or previous) administration is not to blame for the current situation, but the current administration is certainly causing a lot of uncertainly and chaos unnecessarily.

What kind of competent person would aspire to be FAA administrator when your career can be ruined by some butthurt CEO who just donated enough to a political campaign?

The current admin no, but the current party yes. Politics cannot be ignored because this is the result of downstream effects from the Reagan era.

Firing everyone during the 1981 strike fucked up hiring for a decade. Rehiring a bunch of people all at once meant that they all would have the same general retirement timing (20-30 years). The bush era had some fucking around with the FAA as well.

COVID accelerated retirements and now Trump is demanding the fee that remain retire as well. So naturally the end result is a complete lack of staffing and a poor training pipeline for a job few people want to do.