I would say that flying is cheaper now that 30 years ago.
I still beleive that we produced better handling pilots 30 years ago. I accept that trainning in some areas have changed but as someone already said, the controls still do the same job.
A local school here with a fleet of new C172s have had about 5 or 6 landing accidents in the last few years. I would not like their insurance bill after bending so many new a/c. I wonder are pilots paying too much attention to the toys in the new aircraft and not learning to flying the darn thing.
How many pilots are made to fly a few circuts without any instruments these days, I mean No airspeed, altimeter, RPM etc, just look out the window.
At my local airport the instructors wont fly if the wind is over 15 knots, even with advanced students. A new PPL will panic some day when the controler gives them wind of 18 - 20 knots, he or she will worry if the aircraft will fly in these conditions.
I agree that the pilot attitude has as much to do with learning to fly as the instruction.
I would suggest that all instructors should have 1000 hours PIC with at least 500 hours long cross country flights before being accepted for the instructor course. then we will produce more REAL PILOTS.
TR