Thanks for your response Jerricho.
I've heard plenty of complaints about ATC, some of which were justified, but many of which I felt didn't really stand up due to the fact that as pilots we only have a small picture of what's going on.
One thing that baffles me is why sometimes we get cleared direct to some extremely distant point on our flight plan (usually greeted with great enthusiasm of course!) only to be told two minutes later to 'turn right/left ten degrees'.
It seems to me that unless we are very close to a given waypoint, we almost never get all the way there without going back onto vectors first.
I know we don't see the 'big picture', but is this 'route direct' business sometimes used just to give ATC a break from giving headings or what?
thanks
-abra