Could not agree more. The myth of the PPP (public-private-partnership) as it was sold at the time. Sure, there were inefficiencies across the operations, but what happened to "Safety Is No Accident" and "our top priority?" The danger of leadership bleeding in without deep enough understanding.
"ATCO capacity is just an HR issue, right? Like checkout operators? What's so different about that????"
In the late 90s we used to joke about Heathrow approach suddenly only being reachable by 0898 premium rate phone line following "the change". And then sitting in the phone queue being told "your call is important to us".
Reading this recent stuff makes me think we may not have been that far of the mark