> Those smart minds have mostly left spacex now since musk changed political sides

Care to name a few?

Tom Mueller, Chris Thompson, Hans Koenigsmann, Tim Buzza etc have all left.

Makes sense - they had been there ~20 years and must have a huge pile of stock.

But due to musks political aura (mostly right leaning), the smart minds from universities(which are mostly left leaning) are no longer joining spacex en-mass.

In turn, that means the companies are merely ticking along, not racing ahead.