If you think drones, or autonomous planes will fix what governments spend (and waste) on military projects - you're in for a huge disappointment. If anything, "drone" type weapons have meant an increase in budgets.
While the F-35 budgets looks atrocious now - in a couple decades we'll look back and think "how cheap!".
I remember reading a couple of years ago that the thing causing F-35's biggest delays was software, not the hardware. The software for the radar alone is reported to be a few millions of lines of C++ code.
An article on the topic. The summary, IMO, is that no one acquiring major systems (defense or otherwise) seems to properly understand the costs and risks of software. More money spent up front on their design, development and test framework would have significantly reduced the risks while (naturally) costing more early on, but should reduce costs over the lifetime. They ignore this and spend more after the deadlines have passed as a consequence.
Also, 'Unmanned' does not necessarily means "remote-controlled". They can be autonomous.
We are making progress: http://www.naval-technology.com/news/newsus-navys-x-47b-cond...
This is after carrier landings and takeoffs and formation flying with manned aircraft.
And all that developed at a fraction of what the F-35 program will spend on engines alone