I travel all over the world and there are some fine examples in the Far East, several like HKG, KUL have been built from new. (N.B. I don't find the hordes of people lying on the floor in the termainl at Dubai particularly attractive).
Manchester isnt the best at present but it is by far away from being the worst.
I am not sure of the figues but I am sure T1 handles more than Liverpool.
As for the airport loosing routes, it's hardly an avalance and many airports are loosing routes or frequencies as airlines cut back because of oil costs.
In an ideal world they would knock T1 down and start again, but that isnt going to happen is it.
Persobally I fly through Manchester or Leeds quite a lot and have no issues with either, if anything the Terminal at leeds needs attanetion more than Manchester.