Don K is absolutely right. The FIA not only have the power of controlling the rules, but designing them as well. So there's no excuse of letting stuff get out of hand one way or the other.
But on the other hand Laxman's second point is as valid as well because the manufacturer's interests is exactly what the FIA has been dancing too instead of pursuing some sort of goal of 'supreme racing'. Over the years they kind of sold the soul of autoracing to commerce and the results are obvious and the absolute lack of control and opportunistic singing-along apparent as well.
Power steering and braking is permitted btw. Even next year under the new regulations. The new rules only stipulate that they can't be electronically controlled (which for the matter of brakes was already banned before the 1998 season). So they can use power steering but only mechanically from 2002 onwards. And achieve some by using the misty depths of the diff-rules to their fullest ofcourse.
