I clearly recall the hiring of DEC's from the likes of Ryanair. Zero longhaul experience, zero widebody experience, zero EK experience, some really, uh, interesting, ways of flying machines a tad larger than they were used to, yet many in the right seat were passed over so they could babysit the newbie captains. By only the luck of timing I was fortunate to avoid being terribly disadvantaged, but it was painful to see far more qualified FO's getting delayed by these...folks.
This was at least 10 years ago. Suddenly everyone is aghast?
As donpizmeov is so fond of telling everyone, you knew what you signed on for, don't complain now. And if you didn't know, it's your fault. Right, don?