It’s not just airport management–it’s the funding system–local/state/federal. Airport improvements and “fixits” usually require an update of the Airport Layout Plan. That can take years of "studies, and only THEN is the airport eligible for funding. In the meantime, airport engineering firms milk the system for all it’s worth–making even a simple fix VERY expensive. In the meantime, because the problem has been identified by still EXISTS, airports file the NOTAM–protecting the user, as well as themselves. THAT is often the reason that you see NOTAMS that are years old–or that have an expected expiration date 2 years away. At the airport I manage, we are 3 years into “developing a budgeting plan for the next 10 years”–because the “airport engineers” failed to consider the issues they approved on the LAST plan.
The FAA is the perfect example of government waste and ineptitude–is there any WONDER that most pilots are not advocates of big government?