Waco, in your post you mention power on the ground?, has nothing to do with power, but has everthing to do with responsibility. The Commander is rightly the one who calls the shots with regard to the operation of the aircraft even under FAR121, operational control on the other hand is 'exercised ' by the staff designated by the Company as competent to do so. Therein is the difference, competency!
We do indeed miss having a formal accrediation/licence in the UK and this has over the years resulted in often less than competent staff exercising operational and particularly for Companies who do not take the time to train their staff.As an ops bod for over 30 years I can tell you its no wonder some crews don't always trust what they get out of the Ops department, and it hurts me to say that.
Unlike aircrew, or FAA dispatchers, Ops staff in the UK lack a legislative requirement to train as individuals therefore, many ops staff fail to appreciate the environment they work in requires them to ensure they have a high standard of aeronautical knowledge. All too often knowledge is collected piece meal and with little depth.
As a lad I had an Ops Director who warned me about the 'a little knowedlge is a dangerous thing', the longer I spend in this industry I appreciate and understand that simple and well known saying more.
It is unlikely that we will see an FAA style licence, but we most certainly need to work towards an accreditation for Ops bods which will mandate a minimum level of knowledge for the job. THE ICAO Flight Operations Officer syllabus is a very good start, and more appropriate in Europe than the FAA dispatcher licence. Start there any of you who want to know what you need to know, or perhaps with the ATPL syllabus.
I'm sorry to have got off the orignal point of this thread, What JB007 says is true, it is more often the Company/Ops Mgr who gets in the neck at flight ops inspection when an FTL bust or error is made. The CAA expect the exercise of of operational control, that is Company adherence to the FTL scheme exercised by the Ops department, they know crews will get it wrong, but both of us shouldn't! Just this last week I took the blame for a crew member who took a rest reduction without providing adequate travel time to and from the airport, the crew member did it, ops failed to prevent it! The airline took the hit not the crew memeber.
In the crewing world it is one of the few areas where Ops/Crewing and the pilot do indeed share a joint responsibility.