Westom, you've mentioned a few interesting stories of non-engineers making poor engineering decisions. Would be curious to hear more about those.
This problem often continues unnoticed. For example, why do so many domestic auto executives not drive cars? DeLorean discussed how these people would criticize him for constantly driving competitor's products. Sometimes a different one every two weeks. Because he was rare - he wanted to learn.
Columbia was a disaster waiting to happen. A Flight Director, Linda Ham, did not bother to even learn who wanted information to avoid it and why they wanted it. Apparently she was more concerned with relationships to other organizations.
Richard Feynman (his books are classic on these topics) discussed how others on his school board would recommend text books that were poor, incomplete, and sometimes contained bad science. He read the books. And believes other did not bother.
Operators in Three Mile Island knew they had lost control at 4 AM. They called for help from senior Met Ed management. And were told they had everything under control. Only Met Ed executive who know anything about nuclear power was on National Guard duty.
Three Mile Island operators could not even make outgoing phone called because all phone lines were clogged. When Jimmy Carter stepped in, all Three Mile Island phones were connected directly to the White House switchboard so they could call for assistance. MetEd management could not even ask Bell of PA for priority phone lines.
Notice who made decisions to create a Flint water crisis. All except one were MBAs. Those had no training in anything related to water, utilities, or anything related to human health or government services.
None of that is relevant to the topic. But it does demonstrate a common thread for why bad decisions are made. People who make decisions because, somehow, they are experts who never came from where the work gets done. Business schools, in particular, create this problem and the resulting failures.
They could not even ask for phone lines so that nuclear operators could call out for assistance - for three days. They are called accidents so that guilty top executives do not get blamed.