The FAA seemed about 5 years behind what the USN was doing.
Swordfish was hardly different than the Great Lakes TG-2, that was a very slight improvement of the Martin T4M of the Late '20s in 1934, when the USN was moving to the Devastator, the most advanced Torpedo plane in the World.
Gladiators at the same time as the Buffalo and Wildcat, and the Skua while Douglas was changing the BT-2 into the SBD
In fairness to the much maligned Skua, it was IOC two years before the SBD-1 was IOC with the USMC (they Navy loved the initial variant so much they gave them to the Marines) and over two years before the USN achieved IOC with the SBD-2. The Skua is more a contemporary of the Vindicator which achieved IOC a year before the Skua.