Apparently, it’s widely argued that the merger between McDonnell Douglas & Boeing in August 1997 led to the conditions that led to Boeing making the Boeing 737 MAX, not that the MAX was impossible if the merger didn’t happen.
Explanation: after the merger, Boeing could now focus independently on how to profit since McDonnell Douglas was gone & Lockheed ceased production of commercial planes in the mid 1980’s, Boeing was now the sole Aircraft Manufacturer in America that still made commercial planes, because of that, instead of constantly designing brand new aircraft from scratch, they could now focus on easier strategies that’ll still help them make money but less complicated than making brand new airframes so they decided to upgrade the Boeing 737 airframe again which led the the MAX being made.
Even more: the merger between the 2 was a big cause of the Boeing 777X’s delays since after the crashes of the MAX planes, the FAA made it’s rules stricter therefore all of a sudden, the new Boeing 777X airframe would need to be inspected more thoroughly.
Conclusion: believable? Kinda. Feasible? Definitely. What do YOU think?