On the whole I find controllers very good. Refusals of transits are rare, and if anything I detect they are more readily forthcoming than they were say two or three years ago.
Inevitably there are those controllers who you feel might do as well to take a social skills course, but that is also true of some pilots.
My personal pet hate are those controllers who respond to a CAS clearance request with “remain clear etc .. .. ..”. Private pilots don’t just fly for pleasure and some have schedules to keep. A decision needs to be made whether to route around or wait for the clearance. A simple “remain clear of CAS, but you can expect a clearance in x minutes” would be so much more helpful.
To answer the original question .. .. .. Of course infringements are a problem, infringements of ANY airspace are a problem. The solution in the long term must be down to training. With correct training, infringements should be extremely rare, and only occur for exceptional reasons. Training needs to impact at two separate points.
Firstly, there is clearly a need to train initial students to a higher standard. I am not entirely convinced any perceived fall in standards is attributable to the number of FIs who are wannabe commercial pilots, because I am not sure the make up of the FI population has changed a great deal over the last five years or so. I suspect there has simply been a general fall in standards and too greater willingness to pass students.
Secondly, there is also clearly a need to tackle the existing population of pilots. The two yearly check provides an opportunity, but in my opinion the opportunity is consistently missed by instructors. When were you last asked to review with the instructor CAS clearances and navigation?
Finally, whilst I broadly agree it is not the role of controllers to “mollycoddle” pilots never the less both should have an interest in reducing CAS infringements. Controllers should therefore provide as much support to GA as possible remembering in particular that GA is often far less well equipped than their commercial brethren. Inevitably work loads are sometimes high. Equally controllers have a role to play in enforcing standards, particularly as regards RT. In my view there is more unacceptable RT that is left uncorrected than there was, by some margin. It was not uncommon to hear controllers insist read backs and clearances were PRECISELY correct, where as there seems to be more occasions now when the read back eventually conveys the correct information but is still less than clear. Personally without the correct read back I would refuse whatever the clearance is that is being requested .. ..