Setting informed policy in the auditing standards space

The area of audit and assurance tends to be perceived as fairly dry, routine and generally of little interest to policymakers except when companies fail and people go hunting for the auditor to work out what the auditor was doing on the engagement of the entity that belly-flopped.

Assuming the auditor could see some things coming before the management that was doing those things to begin with is always dangerous and that points to a fundamental weakness in the understanding of audit and assurance in the broader community.