Not sure how you mean that BA short haul is luxury class..I myself am a regular user of BA short haul at LGW and think the service is terrible compared to EZY, old aircraft, dated interiors, poor customer service and lost baggage issues, recently travelled to TLS and BA lost my bags for 48hrs (I checked in 3 hrs prior) , the aircraft I travelled on had many cabin defects , broken seats and trim etc, and not too clean either, I used EZY 319 on the same route a few weeks later and could not fault them, and will in future..
As I said my main short haul BA positive experiences from LGW were the GB Airways routes (Southern Spain, Canaries and Gibraltar) and I suppose that was really a different and superior Airline flying in BA colours.
I must also confess to being bothered by who my fellow passengers are. BA passengers short haul are all business persons and nice middle class people. Easyjet passengers are usually much more largely a contingent of oiks (especially PMI where we have a family apartment in the nicer part of the island).
Have Easyjet got rid of not having an allocated seat yet thus forcing you to scrum at the gate for an overwing exit seat or at least an aisle seat in the forward part of the cabin (hate travelling at the back on any aircraft)if you are tall like me on a full flight. And like I say they always resisted any cheap fares under 2 months to departure even if they were undersold. When I looked in January at some offer fares (leaving in the next few weeks) it did look like they were finally starting to bin that dogma (they are big enough now to need to do that though) on routes that were not selling as well as they would like. But then again those were winter fares.
Do Easyjet yet serve anything other than inedible brown bread hovis sandwiches on their new longer haul routes. Also have they stopped charging £3.50 for wine while BA provide it free. I think not. I agree that BA has brought in catering that is not much better than Easyjet on the food side short haul but at least you don't have to take decisions about whether to pay an exorbitant amount for it or go hungry. Or have they shifted to no included food in steerage like BMI?
I agree it does sound like the main BA operation is going down hill from what you say. Perhaps all the decent BA managers went to Easyjet if they are now improving the quality of their operations. Getting rid of Stelios the Greek could only have improved matters on the quality front.