Corazon, you are on target. Those asking the questions need to do so with an independent accountant, or two, in the room as advisers. Someone specializing in forensic accounting would be a nice addition. Any institution like the Academy should have current and historical strategic plans readily at hand, and those plans should be examined. The question becomes: Were there flaws in the plans, flaws in the execution, or were there any plans at all?
This is not rocket science. Well managed institutions have clear spending guidelines, typically based upon average endowment values for 12 trailing quarters, and in this age, rarely exceeding 4.5% of that number. The Academy has clearly exceeded that (for decades?). Since they have chosen a different path, I would be asking about the Black Swan event that they were expecting to somehow change this downward spiral.