I don't believe the actions being taken are really conducive to manufacturing greatness, or indeed technological greatness in any sense. I'd lump elimination of this board with elimination of obscure aviation safety committees normal people would never know about: actions that don't bear scrutiny at face value.

i.e. perhaps the whole point is that breaking these things will do damage and lower the status and functionality of the United States, making it actively worse by a considerable amount and sabotaging key structural parts normal people wouldn't even know were there.

In short, it's possible that it being bad is the point.