Most of the stuff during the cold war wasn't much better. This is, however, by design. Boondoggle aren't as profitable if you actually design a good product in an orderly fashion because then you don't have as many excuses to milk for cash.

If the F35 was functional than Lockheeb Martin would have to actually keep a product up to spec and would have to profit off of a margin. If your product is vaporware with no actual cost other than lying to your customers then the overhead is nothing and the margin is 100%. It's easier to make money on a lie people already believe than it is to make money on an actual product that can be negotiated down in price.