Also of course the nature of the job has changed beyond recognition in a short time.
Fair comment. My first airline job was in 2008, and imho the industry has got worse even in that time.
A small example:
2009: 450 block hrs (full time). Regional, no night flying, few night stops. A very easy life.
2015: 750 block hrs (God only knows what the duty time was). Middle East, constant night flying, regular fatigue. Not fun.
2019: 720 hrs. Long haul, every trip is at least 1 night out of bed, circadian rhythm wonders what hit it. LHR-CHS, 2 days off, LHR-NRT, 2 days off, LHR-MAA? No problem because EASA says it's legal.
I'm now part time, which has restored my enthusiasm (not to mention quality of life). Before COVID, my part-time (75%) block hours would have been around 450-500 per year - i.e. what I was doing full time when I started. There's progress for you.
Other opinions are available; the best advice I could give any wannabe is to ask as many questions as possible, to as many people as they can, and make up their own mind if this is a career for them.