I have some sympathy for the CAA in a lot of respects. It was our politicians afterall that told them that they had to make a profit unlike most other govt departments who merely spend all of their remaining budgets near the end of each financial year in order to secure another handout. Also I would hazard a guess that if you were to measure the time that they deal on GA matters compared with the airline stuff versus where their revenues come from then the GA stuff probably takes up the bulk. Spend a month on pprune and it never ceases to amaze me how little interest people take in searching for information by taking a gander in say LASORS. Most don't even know it exists. Compare this with your average airline that the CAA deals with. They will have a team of experienced professionals who largely do a lot of the CAA's work for them and send all the right bits and pieces electronically to get the tick in the boxes that they need.
Who knows where the answer lies with EASA. I guess it will cost more no doubt as these things always seem to for some strange reason. Or perhaps that is just down to the fact that the EU hasn't yet been able to get a set of books audited with an unqualified opinion and the cash must be going somewhere?