This sort of thing is always an interesting thread... But as both a pilot and a controller, it is always interesting to note that most commercial pilots have no concept of air traffic control. The feel that everything is the same, that we have static routes, static restrictions for everything just doesn't meet with reality. We COULD have a very static system that you can plan for every event. But that would cut down on the flexibility of the system and cut back on the rates of aircraft we could get through the system. Something that the airlines would really not like...
I see the problem as multifold. One is that the skies just keep getting busier and busier with aircraft that are less and less compatible together. In the old days everyone pretty much operated the same and there was a lot of stratification of traffic between the military, airlines and GA... No longer is this true and going to become even worse with the advent of the VLJ.
We also have the problem with airlines trying to squeeze every ounce of fuel out of a flight. They bet on the cum as it were that most of the time things are going to work our well and they can plan for very little contingency fuel if the destination airport is VFR. There are crews that are trying to be good little employees and who take for gospel what the dispatcher has load planned for them fuel wise. Sometimes this isn't quite good enough due to winds not being what is forecast, or crews going direct somewhere that takes them out of the favorable winds. (Not our problem one way or another.). Then there are the issues of unrealistic planning, and that is of going to a major metro airport and expecting that you are going to be able to get a throttle off decent from your requested TOD point. To try to make everything fit correctly, you just can't expect this all the time. There are just too many aircraft all vying for the same bit of airspace going to and fro that make it a crap shoot at best on where you are going to get to start down.
We could publish all of our Letters of Agreement (standing agreements) for the pilot community, but for one, it would probably just cause a lot of confusion as well as weigh down the flight bag pretty bad. Aviation is VERY fluid and we are going to change routes and altitudes of aircraft based on traffic, weather and sector loading. There are no standing agreements for that per se, but there are common sense ATC principals in use... Oh and there are also different levels of controllers just as there are pilots. You have to take that into account too.
As to commercial pilots getting a better handle on what is going on downstairs. I wish that we had more than a bare 1% of the commercial crowd come to classes to actually learn what we do. Unfortunately the more educated pilots seem to come from the GA crowd who have a larger interest in what goes on all inclusive of aviation. The people that do come to the classes do get a very good overview of what it takes to move aircraft around the system and why we do what we do. They also come out of it with a very very good understanding of the dynamics of it... Probably has something to do with straping a headset on and working traffic in the simulator <EG>... But also a lot of info from the classroom portion too.
Do controllers need to know more of what goes on in the cockpit? We certainly do, but for most of us, it isn't even an option anymore unless we were to go out and pay for lessons. There are some seminars that we can try to go to, but those too are expensive to attend. The airlines for the most part to not help us to understand... In the US there is probably only one source of getting pilots and controllers together to try to understand differences and that is Communicating for Safety, and then some of the Raincheck classes that are provided at some ATC facilities. It's NOT enough, and there needs to be some real understanding about the complexities of the system by both the dispatchers and airline managment who sometimes have no clue as to what they are doing to the flight crews by shorting them fuel...
Oh well enough for now, time to head out of the house...
regards
Scott