Going through LTN last October on easyJet, I found that they had deployed more staff to hand-hold pax through the baggage machines. I wondered if they had found a balance point between relying on pax to check in and print their own tags etc. and the extra delays incurred by those who were not familiar/comfortable with the process. Also, perhaps, some pax deciding to ignore the online bit and do it all at the machine, thus taking longer.
We used Alaska at SAN last month and their agent was superb and made me wish all desk agents were that helpful. On the other hand, it was a quiet time of the afternoon.