Historically I believe FAA is considered airline friendly and generally gives the airlines a good sendoff. The agency mission statement at least used to say "promoting aviation", which historically equaled somewhat lax airline rule enforcement. This was to blame for the Value Jet crash and arguably several others. Pilots error crashes have also been tied to lax FAA enforcement in some cases. It's not accurate to equate FAA history with a heavy hand in enforcement. My own experience with the FAA makes them very community minded, although a have run into a jerk or two. So far only one I can think of comes to mind.