Just to give my brief opinion - what it's worth I don't know ---
Flying is and always will remain something special when compared with many, if not most ofther professions. Whether this be in a dinky little Piper Warrior flying out of EGTC now and again (weather depending) to do a short x-country over to Gloucestershire or out of EGLL for a longhaul flight over to the US, flying, in whatever form it may be is still a lot more interesting than most jobs.
My opinion -- having trained as a pilot (although not one now) and having many close friends who are pilots - some are shorthaul F/Os with low-cost carriers in the UK, some are Captains with the aforesaid, one is a longhaul 777 pilot with EK, another a Chief Pilot for an executive jet company - they all love flying, but their job satisfaction varies greatly, so I think people really need to take a long hard look at basically who they are working for.
What I am trying to say is that at the end of the day, flying is flying, the job satisfaction, pay, rostering, hours flown, aircraft flown, whatever depends on their company entirely, so I think it's pretty difficult to come up with an overall conclusion of the job in an overall state, there are so many variables, although true, as we keep hearing and most definitely believe, the lifestyle associated with being a pilot has changed a great deal and I think it is very unlikely that the welcoming conditions of work and pay that used to be associated with the job will ever return.
There will always be new pilots wanting to fly commercially and with the low-cost carriers quite obviously taking over and transforming the industry (and thereby affecting how the incumbent BA-type carriers also operate), I don't think O'Leary and Co are ever going to back down -- they are going to continue to offer cheap prices, attract customers and keep stimulating demand by keeping costs low -- which boils down to low labour costs and high crew utilisation. Just the way it is unfortunately.
If you look at the job of a pilot compared with most others -- even within the aviation industry, it is still pretty good, well-paid (pilots contrary to what is said in this discussion still earn more than a sizeable proportion of airline management) and the hours pilots work is still less than that of the airline's ground employees. Working in airline management requires just as much training and commitment as does being a pilot, as does any other position you may be in. Everyone else also works just as hard but that is something we have to all live with --- we wouldn't all be working in this industry if we didn't still enjoy it.
As for me, yeah I work in the industry, earn good money, work hard (only get to check PPRuNE occasionally as opposed to everyday a few years back), and enjoy my job. I still fly but only in light aircraft and the aerobatics still feeds the buzz for flying that I always get.
Admittedly though -- surely flying has to still be better than working for a living...
Best regards to you all...
CP