Since I've maintained a recall section here since May of 2015 I've noticed this long period with NO recalls.  Dave Baker, who runs the PetFul blog posted an interesting thought.

Dave Baker wrote:

Hi,

Because you signed up for pet food recall alerts from Petful (formerly Pets Adviser), I wanted to send a quick update since you haven't heard from us in a long time.

We have *not* had any pet food recall announcement since mid-June, more than 5 months ago. This is an unusually long time to go without a single recall, so what's going on here?

I'm working on a story over the next few weeks about whether or not the FDA's oversight has been slowed down by the Trump administration. And I'd love to hear your thoughts, too. Is no news of recalls good news? Maybe it means pet food companies are cleaning up their act? OR, does the lack of recalls leave you feeling uneasy?

Dave Baker,
Publisher of Petful

Now, I'm not interested in starting any political bonfires but the questions he raises are interesting - to say the least. Personally, I'd like to hope that the lack of recalls is because there has been no need for one - but my curmudgeonly attitude suggests otherwise.

It's still very good to know. At the very least, this means it's in the best interest of consumers to remain diligent and report online and to each other -- in a constructive manner -- if their dogs have any problems with ANY products or services.

The Trump administration has been slow to fill tons of vacancies at the highest levels of various government institutions. On top of that, his administration is doing everything it can to put big business and companies first. I could see either of these issues, or a combination of both having effects on the FDAs ability to do business.

Late last year the drug approval arm of the FDA had over 700 vacancies which were causing major slow downs in drug approvals.
Trump has been outspoken against regulations, and has even taken direct swings at the FDA with threats to cut funding.
Many officials see the FDA as understaffed and underfunded under supportive administrations.
Overall FDA warnings (across the spectrum, not just with pet food) have dropped significantly since Trump took office.
While Trump rarely says anything concrete, he's hinted that he believes the FDA is overregulating things and specifically mentioned pet food in the statement he made. The common perception of the statement was that he was hinting at doing away with the FDA regulating pet food.
If you do a few google searches for pet food, pets, fda, trump, and combinations of those you get quite a few articles.

Honestly I don't think Trump bothers to consider animals in any situation. And I don't think he has any personal vendettas against pets. But if one of his 'friends' owns a company that produces dog food, I wouldn't put it past him to lean on the FDA to make cuts in this area. And FDA's inherent understaffing issues have only been made worse under the Trump administration.

I'll be curious to see if Petful can pull together anything more concrete.

I've seen a couple brands have some mass issues but no recalls. Obviously TOTW was having some trouble a while back but think that was regional and probably rancid food more than an actual issue from the manufacturer. There's also been some buzz about a line of Purina Pro Plan having problems, but again, nothing really concrete said. With as fast as people get appointed and promptly resign from positions currently it wouldn't surprise me if there aren't several projects on the back burner outside dog food.

Obviously the FDA isn't completely stymied by the revolving door of the current administration, they posted the following notice.

As reported by UPI Bone Treats causing Illness, Death in Dogs

Here's one I got today from H2M2:
https://www.chagrinfallspetclinic.com/2017/09/14/pet-food-lead-alert-blue-buffalo-blue-wilderness-dog-food-class-action-law-suit/amp/

You missed the date on that recall Mike. It's Sept of last year! But thanks for keeping me on my toes - had to check and make sure there wasn't anything new on it.