Cool. So why did they approve the Max's initial design then? Are they corrupt too?

regulatory capture of the others don't cause a significant problem outside the US

when the sides start poping out of FAA approved airliners maybe trust of that agency should be re-evaluated

The FAA isn't held to a higher standard, that's the entire point of this article and the discussion around it. We can and should oppose corruption in all government agencies, and if the FAA is where we can get enough will to start then so be it!

I also don't know that I agree with your assertions. Do you have further evidence about FAA is held to such a higher standard than other regulatory agencies and how those other agencies failures are so much more frequent and have wrought so much more damage on the lives of the public?

Things that could be passed over in traditional wheeling & dealing of US politicians corruption won't fly (pun intended) because failures will get international consequences and scrutiny and tend to involve big medially visible tragedies (and not white collar crime or slow and unmarketable deaths of poor aka nobody important).

Noticeably, two times that president pushed a deregulation policy on FAA, the result was deadly accidents - DC-10 cargo door issues (Nixon) and 737 MAXX development (policy pushed under Bush Jr).

Additionally, FAA and related orgs elsewhere tend to take "regulations are written in blood" even more than regular pilots, and thus there's a drive to self correct even in face of problematic political reality.