Correct me if I'm wrong here but the traditional way of the pilot career in the past was to some degree to start at the bottom of any Co. that had a career path for bigger & better things. You started for Eg. flying the basic small machines for a few years to gain further experience (this could also have been via the GA fraternity if there was no low end division) then you stepped up the ladder one rung to say a mid sized job that had 2 crew & flew that for a few years R/H seat also futher gathering experience along the way eventually getting a CMD. Then finally after many years in the Co. you stepped inside their top range plane as an F/O did yr time in the R/H seat then again went to the L/H seat to see out yr career. This situation was how it was for many years in Co's that had a structure as described above. Simply called a career path.
Nowadays we have independant operators (well offshoots of majors) that only operate one type or close to it allowing little advancement upwards (regionals typical here) even within their own Co. Obviously this has a twofold effect. No advancement in more complexe types mean little in the way of remuneration increases. Secondly & we are dealing with humans here we/they get bored with doing the same thing on the same type day in day out. And that coupled with low pay we have arrived at where we are these days, as testament shows amongst the thousands of pages here.
Possible fix????............well hypothecially to some degree here but plausable (cause it's a diff model now) is to have once again a combined career structure for the pilots giving them one simple thing .................hope, a future & a chance when due to advance without having to feel as tho there is nowhere to go & yr just a number!
I don't know the answers to all this, maybe there isn't one 'till we see some major player/s almost fold & that means the horse has to bolt first............the 'gate' is wide open at the moment, just remains to be seen who goes first!
CW