POLITICS OF GOVERNMENT
Air Traffic Control isn't.
Everybody, including the pilots & controllers, know that.
The problem cannot be fixed through the FAA.
The FAA is there to service the airlines. About 2,000 airplanes total, give or take. They do this by clearing the sky of personally owned aircraft, what is called General Aviation, about 200,000 airplanes, give or take. Most of these today are what are called Experimental; they were designed, or a kit was modified, and were constructed by their owners. The FAA tried to control the numbers of General Aviation by refusing to "certify" modern technology (so we could get rid of magnetos and use more reliable electronic ignition, so we could get rid of generators and use more reliable alternators, so we could go 200 mph instead of 80 mph, etc).
The airlines want a clear sky, and they do not want to be held legally liable if they run into anything. To afford the indemnity to the airlines, the FAA created the NAS, National Airspace System. Nobody will be allowed to act on what they see if they look out the window, there will be one person whom will be responsible for separating all of the aircraft in his "sector", he will use "radar" to do that, all airplanes will be concentrated into "highways in the sky", the low altitude and high altitude "airways", rather than be allowed to fly point to point. If anything in the way of a collision happens, it was at government direction, the government cannot be sued. The "radar" has never been able to handle more than about 2,000 airplanes total, give or take.
The FAA has, over the years, modified "radar". It doesn't work hardly at all, anymore. The predominant mode of operation is "unannounced coast mode". There is tracked target "dropout". There is obvious "track jump". We have inherited these names, defined by the FAA, because of the obvious severity of the problem. Here is the FAA official report on transponders don't work right: tn97_7.pdf
The FAA gets from the federal government 11 billion dollars per year, give or take, to operate this Air Traffic Control System. That is a government subsidy for the airlines of about 5.5 million dollars per airplane, give or take, for a system that cannot prevent collisions. The first objective of the FAA is to retain and grow bureaucracy, so they do not care. The second objective of the FAA is to cover up the absolutely miserable job it does at everything it does, so they do not care. The airlines do not want to be liable for their own pilots' decisions.
Safety is a slogan at the FAA, has never been an honestly measured parameter.
This, if it was allowed to be affordable by every pilot, enables the driver to see the aircraft around him, from the cockpit, without relying on any other thing or person. It represents a tremendous threat to what is.
This, if it was allowed to be installed at the FAA ATC computer sites, would provide real time radar fusion and also handle all of the aircraft (something the FAA ATC system can't come even close to). It represents a tremendous improvement to what is.