There was never a boom
In reality there was never a boom, 9/11 had a massive effect on the industry and it took until at least 2007 for this to show any real signs of recovery. During this time a Massive number of people used equity release loans on overvalued property fuelled by an economy which grew whilst aviation merely recovered to pay for training on a whim, creating a surplus of low houred Pilots. The wide availability of credit to the average rookie Pilot lead to greed, debt, lower wages and the rise of self sponsored type ratings and line training. Flight numbers may have increased in these times but many operators were operating on a shoe string, constantly refinancing. The finance has now run out and airlines which should and would have gone bankrupt along time ago without this madness such as Excel are now gone. The Air is now clearing and the future is great SSTR will probably be phased out as no one will be able to get the loans resulting in a quick return to sanity. Please don't belittle these comments as they may be outspoken, but they are written from experience as I worked in the Aviation sector during these times and still do today! I'm currently training via the modular route and preparing for when operators start hiring again!