Am I paranoid or is this drift a reality?
The latter I think.
The Campaign Against Aviation, or at least some of the people there think we are all baddies out here in aviation land. We don't follow the rules properly and should be brought to heel.
Many of the inhabitants at Aviation House never made it in the real world of aviation and have no idea on how things really work. They write rules that they can never give a clear interpretation on or worse still cannot agree among themselves on the correct interpretation.
As HSR mentions they change the rules or their interpretation of the rules leaving poor unsuspecting people high and dry. It is almost impossible to keep up with any rule changes. So often the changes are very subtle and are easily missed or you need to read several parts of a particular rule and other rules to find the full meaning of what you are allowed or not allowed to do. Is it any wonder we get confused.
Even though the current Director is a "new face" he was at CAA when the various "Scandals" took place. He will ensure that there are some scapegoats in court to make it look like he has made changes or improved things at CAA. Otherwise nothing has changed.
I know of one recent fiasco which even featured in the Flight Safety Magazine which was largely perpetuated by CAA's incompetence, yet the article gave no suggestion to that regard. According to them the fault was out in aviation land.
There have been recent determinations from CAA which are not backed up by the rules, talk about rule making, by making policy. They have no right to do this, they got their hands slapped for this in the past and they are at it again.