The existence of the AF is wrapped up pretty tightly in politics, which explains why they are to this day the most political of the branches. The roots do back to World War II, and even the interwar period, but the main thrust came after World War II and the dawn of the atomic era. Many factors went into it, including the perceived cost of maintaining a large standing army as opposed to the "cost savings" of an airborne atomic deterrent.

And as yet another aside, the concept of officers only flying is something of an American aviation deal. Both the Germans and the British had flying sergeants in both World Wars, and the Marines did the same up until the first part of World War II. One could also argue that the high concentrations of officers in the AF has created its own problems (among them an NCO corps that is fairly weak when compared to those of the other branches), but this is way major tangent time...

In any case, it's high time someone made the AF look at MOOTW/COIN in a serious way. NK bomb tests aside, it's really what we will be doing for the foreseeable future.