It's not just Ford, or even just the auto industry. American corporations as a whole are cannibalizing themselves, slashing costs, repurchasing shares of stock, in order to look good in the short term and return as much profit to shareholders as possible, with little to no regard with the effects it will have on the long term prosperity of the business. Corporations are hollowing themselves out just to be able to post the quarterly results that investors demand. Company profits were meant to grow the business by investing in R&D and attracting and retaining talent. Instead, in many cases, that money is going out the window in the form of repurchasing stock in order to boost the stock price in the short term, but putting the company's long term prosperity in peril. Stock buybacks weren't even LEGAL prior to 1982.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-buybacks-cannibalized/