Upon reflection, one of the things that I took away from reading this is how compliant we are all becoming in the erosion of safety in the industry.
IMHO, a lot of stuff goes on now that just wouldn't have in times past. If you want to get anywhere, you just have to put up with it, or be labled as 'belligerent' or 'change resistant'. Manning levels, fuel policies etc are all being squeezed as the dollar keeps becoming more and more important.
Maybe I'm just getting old........