Do you know a basis for that? My understanding, though limited, is that they have incredible expertise - and we can see their outstanding results. Also, IME, this claim is used by many industries to assert that they shouldn't be subject to regulation, and (IME) it's always false.
Of course it is false. Even if the regulation ultimately can't be enforced due to lack of the right people, the players can still be subject to the regulation. The two are not logically associated.
Nobody is making that claim, though. What is the significance of this fun anecdote you pulled randomly from a hat?
Pass regulation that requires audit and certification by a rated and licensed authority that isn't necessarily the government itself. As a publicly traded company Boeing already has to do this with its books; why not with its product too?
I'm sure that E&Y, Deloitte, KPMG, or PwC would love a crack at a new market and they've certainly got the money to hire away from manufacturers.
HN is pretty strange these days. One day gov't is the problem, the next it is the only solution. We need "streamlining" of regulation for more nukes, but more regulation of Boeing because a door blew off over 100's of millions of flights. We need to get rid of the FAA and ATC and automate everything with software controls to prevent runway incursions. But we need to ban autonomous cars.
When you take a checkride at the end of training to earn your pilot certificate, it's not an FAA employee riding with you... it's a "DPE" or Designated Pilot Examiner, who is a private individual designated by the FAA to conduct check rides (and who often charges you a fee to administer the test).
Occasionally an FAA employee will ride along with the student pilot and DPE to evaluate how the DPE is evaluating prospective pilots.
It has to be a complete plan, not just a slap-dash "we can hire some people and the problem is solved".
To do it best you do NOT hire from the industry, and if necessary you hire from unrelated industries (perhaps, for example, oil rig/pipeline inspectors).
Deliberately sabotage the regulatory authorities, then use the fact that they no longer have the expertise and staff as a justification to outsource the regulation function over to the companies that were supposed to be inspected.
And when it goes wrong, which it always does, make shocked pikachu face and claim that nothing can be done because we no longer have the capacity to regulate industry.
This would be less infuriating if this was the first time, but it keeps happening again and again and people keep falling for it. It is immensely profitable for the few though, that might be why it keeps happening.
The fix is easy, just requires time and budget: rebuild that expertise and refuse to certify anything until you have the necessary capabilities.