In response to pinkman, I am of similar age and have similar travelling experience, but I am not London based, therefore BA is just another airline and I do not have rose coloured spectacles, therefore I can be more objective.
I too could state that I have travelled in ambassadors, DC3s, Tridents, VC10s etc, but that was a different age. I have travelled on numerous airlines also, from the tiny princeair in the caribbean, Branniff, Laker, TWA and hundreds of other mostly forgotton airlines.
As i mentioned previously, BA has provided some of the best and worst aircrew, but it is difficult to judge some airlines. For example, the staff on Oman Air were O.K., but then again how do you deal with almost the whole flight grabbing their overhead baggage the second the aircraft has touched down on the tarmac, I was amazed and shocked at the danger, but its issues like these that BA staff fortunately do not have to deal with.
In the late 70s and on a small seaplane, there were no smoking signs everywhere, yet the pilot saunders on with a cigarette loosely hanging from his lips. To be fair, I believe that it was to create an impact with the PAX, but otherwise the service was excellent.
Its difficult to compare as in many cases it is like mixing apples & pears and everyone can have an off day, but the BA of today is a different animal than its predecesors of 30-40 years ago. I only fly them at most once or twice a year now as there is no need to interline through LGW or LHR anymore, so my recent experiences are limited, but I believe my views are still justified.
However, all cabin & flight crew do an excellent job and I don't envy those who work very hard on charter flights to say Tenerife in the middle of the night where they get no break at all.