Dry and "blue-sky" lightning is not unheard of where I grew up on the Canadian prairies, but it is received like a tale of having tea with BigFoot to many very experienced Australian bushwalkers. As far as intensive management, ecosystem regeneration and study, there are a lot of Australians studying wildfire, as are many in Europe, Canada and the US. Not all lessons can be transferred, but many can, and each leads to new knowledge. The skills are far from lost, but its a matter of having both the resources to manage those fires, the teams on the ground being able to manage the fuel load, and to be honest the PR people to sell the changes in policy to the public. I've met many people who've never roasted a marshmallow who seem to be wildfire experts.
I recently saw an article that suggested that the aerial attack of the Camp fire was not effective, but kept up for PR. This may or may not be the case, but I had always been lead to be believe that once a fire was going that hot, aerial attack was going to be pretty limited in effect, and retardant drops were better suited to directing a fire-line and keeping the front broken up. But here in lies the issue, there is good science, and good knowledge out there, but I'm only one degree from a lot of loggers, and wildfire fighters, and even I probably have more than half of it wrong. Public education does need to be factored in.