As all that have been in this industry for a while would know to get to this situation didn't take just a few months. Years of a down hill slide has us now at the bottom of that slide!
As 'SF' said it's all about T&C's these days. Flying is no longer looked upon as a glamorous job I believe. Since "WW3" we have seen a decline in T&C's to the point where a lot of other industry jobs that where considered ok but not as well paid as pilots have caught up & are now being seeked out by the youth of today purely because of money (& I don't blame them). Flying as we used to know is dieing, it's almost run it's course from it's inception. Flying could not have gone on the way it has been forever, progress usually kills off a lot of the ways things are done traditionally. Some for the better some not so. So now it's more a thinking & discussing of how we are going to handle aviation the way it's fast becoming, with little in the way of security & fast becoming a low paid job for what's involved.
In some ways I feel a little sad for the up & coming guys/gals that still want to fly, oh they will still feel the exhileration of flying just like we older ones had/have but not with the same passion that was once so prolific in the field of aviation
Like few words said by Jimmy Stewart (Flt of the Pheonix, not the crap remake with Dennis Quade)...."flying used to be fun Lou, pilots took pride in just getting there" (or words to that effect)
As usual personal opinions only.
CW
CW