Toyota - Why now?

Indeed, Toyota has had some critical quality defects in its cars but why is it now that the US is extending significant resources to bring Toyota to its knees? According to reports, these safety issues and other defects have been under investigation for nearly 7 years, since the George Bush era. But now, with the excessive pressure on the US car industry to increase market share and profits, and the fact that Toyota is one of the leading foreign sellers in the US market, might it be an opportunist reaction for a planned effort to destabilise Toyota to give the US car industry room to recover

Comments welcomed.