QA was getting squashed by Boeing at the time. One rampant thing I've noticed in the tech industry in particular is the QA group not actually being independent from the Engineering group. You can only pretend the conflict of interests doesn't exist for so long.
Also, hiring for legit QA, as in, you're getting people who can socially stand up and trade blows with engineers and management is hard. You have to have that unique blend of perseverance, quick thinking and attention to detail that is astonishingly hard to find.
Been in the situation when I was my own QA. You can just not do it at that point because you won't find the errors you made anyway, otherwise you might not have made them in the first place. Was glad that changed at some point and QA can be incredibly helpful. But management just sees a cost center and low risk. Story of fight club insurance logic I believe. Same with car autopilots, you just try to not belong to the unlucky few who will be affected by negligence.
There's a difference between responsibility at all levels for all types of calls, which is the one of the managers; and responsibilities for doing things they know can cause accidents. Engineers are not machines that carry on orders mindlessly without accountability.
Managers aren't paid because their abilities, they are paid for responsibility. In any case it should be QA on the line.