Well the problem with the MiG-29 timing was the overloading of the MiG and Su bureaus. The US had Lockheed, Northrop, Grumman, General Dynamics, Northrop, LTV, McDonnell-Douglas and Boeing all working on fighter designs. When GD were busy with the F-111, McDD made the F-15- Grumman the F-14. For the LWF competition, Grumman and McDD were busy, and Northrop and General Dynamics were successful bidders.
The huge spare capacity contrasted with the Soviet situation.
There were only two fighter bureaus, while resources were limited by Central planning. While a US company could work on its own funds in advance, in the Soviet system you were only supposed to work when told to by the Communist party decree. The OKB was supposed to build a prototype, which would be tested, and if found good a factory would be assigned to build it.
Mikoyan in the early 70s were trying to finish off and improve the MiG-25 and MiG-23, they couldn’t realistically have got the MiG-29 out much quicker.
These are some reasons why the USSR ended up behind the US. Another big one is computer technology. In the early days of computing, advances were mainly logical, design based, and the USSR was competitive. From the point of integrated circuits, production quality began to be a major factor in producing computers, and they became mainstream items. The USSR could not compete, and fell way behind.
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