If I were to go back 20 years or so, the lack of progress at the bottom of the ladder was blamed to a large extent on experienced pilots who had already retired with a very nice pension at age 55 and then agreeing to work for peanuts for another airline just to top up their pensions. This, of course, meant that everyone else had to work for peanuts and so the T & Cs went into decline.
I believe it is still going on. In fact, I do believe that FR have several ex-BA pilots flying with them for example.