we are still responsible for hundreds of lives and millions of dollars worth of equipment every time we move off the airbridge
Sure, but so are train drivers, bus drivers (to a lesser extent), ferry captains, and so on.
The difference is that aviation is now perceived as "low risk", which paradoxically works against pilots being paid high salaries. Why would you pay a guy a six-figure salary to drive a computer with wings?
When I first started in this industry, the (civil) uniform meant something and the public generally respected what it represented. Little boys would ask for your autograph on the back of a timetable, that sort of thing. Those days are long gone, thanks mainly to the LCCs and their reduction of the airline to the status of a cheap bus service.
Personally I am quite grateful that I had the bulk of my career in the days before LCCs were quite so rampant.
It's pretty much all downhill from here.