d246 - the airline industry was started and run by pilots for the first 30 years. Look at the lions of industry back then - Rickenbacker (Eastern), Patterson (UAL), Hughes and Fry (TWA), Smith (AA)., pilots with vision who were leaders first and then managers..
Today we have managers with no leadership. The exceptions are the success stories that we read about, Branson, Kelleher, Bethune. Look at BA, an airline with a great reputation, a fortress hub closed to effective competion by way of slot restrictions, and what happens? The airline is allowed to deteriorate by managers who can't manage. It is good to see BA has recovered but that airline has succeeded in spite of management, not because of it. That story has been repeated over the last 20 years by managers who are looking for short term results and not the long term viability of their companies.
Pilots are generally very good at what they do. We are scrutinized far more than any other profession I can think of (save a football referee). 3 sim rides per year, 2 medicals, company line checks, FAA line checks, recurrent tests and all the Flight Data parameters that are monitored by the company via the FOQUA program (Flight Oriented Quality Assurance, aka the Snitch). All these are neccessary because we have to get it right, every time.
Since pilots are good at what they do they have a tendency to think they are good at everything they do, which, of course, is not the case. But since we are on the front lines we have a lot better picture of the operation than someone sitting in a cubicle back at company HQ. Since pilots are married closer to their jobs than their spouses and that manager sitting on his butt in his office can float away on his golden parachute to his next job with little change in status or pay, then pilots tend to get more than a little irritated at incompetence in other areas.
Should pilots run the airline - no, we need to be focused on what we do, which is fly the airplane. But should managers listen to the pilots and take heed of their warnings - yes, because we are the tip of the spear and we see things first.