Well having been around the industry for a few decades and in training, I cannot agree with your claim that standards have dropped! A degree whilst very nice to have is no guarantee of ones intelligence or ability in any profession and certainly not in aviation. If anything the standard in some areas has improved, no one man and his dog operations these days, at least not in the UK. Take a look at accident rates now and twenty or thirty years ago!
To you the locked cockpit door may be a silly argument, to many it is just one more erosion of our life style. I would not argue with your claim that the CAA sets the standard but the airlines maintain them.
Sounds like intellectual snobbery to me CAP, and yes I do have a degree!
