The challenge I think is to keep two things separated, one is the flight control laws that the system is implementing to keep the plane in the air (to the best of its ability), and the other is the situational awareness indicators for the pilots so that they can tell what what the plane is "thinking" about how it is flying (or not).
The closest analogy I can come up with is the SQL explain command. That command will generate the complete decision tree for how records are included or excluded from a SQL query. The air equivalent might be display that shows the flight status, and the state of the instruments that are being used to determine that status. And then it is up to the pilots (or DBA :-) to figure out if what is happening is what they think should be happening.
To use this particular example, it is, in my opinion, negligent on Boeing's part not to include an indicator for every change in the flight control laws. If MCAS activates to avoid a stall it should always indicate that it is, and why it is activated. It has been reported that this was an "extra price" option for the jet, and it is that choice that makes it feel negligent to me.
Generally, there seems to be enough indications with backups in the cockpit so that the pilot can ascertain what is going on with the aircraft reliably (backups and such), but what was missing here was, again in my opinion, was the rationale the plane was using for the flight laws it was implementing being available as well.