I think part of the problem for BA crew is that it is a lot harder to be proud these days. Pride leads to enthusiasm, and enthusiasm to quality service. It also gives the insouciance to deal with the occasional whingeing passenger. A lot of it is obviously behind the scenes (eroding terms and conditions), but a lot of it is also visible to the passengers:
Examples:
The all day deli: the staff are embarassed handing it out.
Club Europe Food: its not very special, is it? Pasta on a three hour flight? The cost cutting is very obvious
Limited menu choices: Last four club world flights out of LHR I've been told my first choice is unavailable. Cairo flight has the same menu day in, day out: and as the nice lady said, 'its not good, is it?'
Pointless cut backs: two single malts in a club world drinks trolley
An old one: No complaints form in High Life (I guess too many people used them)
Lack of gates at LHR: 'just like Ryanair, but they don't make you wait for a bus'
Doubts about maintenance: some of the planes are filthy. Too much oil and filth on moving surfaces of wings. Is it me or are there more funny noises than there used to be? If it looks like that on the outside, what does it look like underneath?
Tatty planes: club world product is no longer best in class, and the cabins are very tired. Many short haul planes are just plain (excuse the pun) shabby.
I suspect a lot of BA cabin crew are getting tired of apologising.
In economy, BA does not really differentiate itself short-haul in any meaningful way over Easyjet, and the crew know it and don't like it. Club in Europe is not as good as it ought to be for the price, and the crew don't like that either. Club World is still good, but not as good as it was, and still on a downslope: the crew see it and don't walk tall anymore.
BA makes a lot of its revenue from business travellers who pay a lot of money to fly with them. If I pay £650 pounds for an economy ticket to Rome, it is no good telling me the service is terrible because the person next to me only paid £79: I expect to get what I paid for. And if I don't get it, I'm surly, and the cabin crew, who don't thinks its terribly clever either, get surly, and everyone has slipped one step down the ladder.
Same long haul: if I pay £1,800 to fly Club World to Cairo, and the food is terrible and I don't get my menu choice, and the flaps make a funny grinding noise and are covered in oil, and theres a rubber seal flapping in the breeze, I'm unlikely to smile brightly when the nice lady by the door wishes me a pleasant afternoon. So next time, she doesn't bother, and we all lose.
I like BA, and want them to do well. Whoever started this thread is right, the service ethos that made BA in the late 80s and early 90s is visibly fraying, and the airline will pay a bottom line price for it.
The management have to address the terms and conditions issues (and the efficiency issues on the ground) at BA, and that is obviously going to have an effect on the staff. But to simultaneously downgrade service levels to try and compete with people who have a lower cost base than you is commercial suicide.