Who's in Charge?
In the hard commercial world of Low Cost, there is, in my experience a lot of trust placed in - and a lot of reliance placed upon - the Captain. By that I mean even more than in a national carrier.
It is actually rewarding to keep the ship on time and sort out problems which, on a national carrier, would be dealt with by some department or other. This used to be appreciated by the management in the early days.
It seems that things have deteriorated to the point where there is not only no appreciation - but an expectance that crews will stretch to the utmost. This is not helped by Captains who submit to a regime where fatigue becomes the norm.
Captains, you have to show the way. If you are not fit to fly, you must call in unfit. If you see another crew member flying when unfit, you should send him home. If all Captains act in this way, then very quickly the message will get through - probably quicker than any lambasting of management in these columns could achieve.