So have the JAA failed when it comes to raising or at least maintaining 'the standard?' Personally, overall, I think it has fallen. Some countries have achieved their Approval to JAR OPS standard that are quite miraculous, Turkey for a start. The 'self assessment/auditing process that allow individual airlines to self govern, is being taken advantage of by the unscrupulous airlines of which there are many.
It is quite true that the majority of airline pilots are no longer capable of flying without flight directors and most couldn't fly a raw data NDB approach to save their grannies let alone a hand flown CAT III with all engines never mind with one or two engines out.
Accidents are on the increase, loss of control is the biggest killer, and airlines are still reducing the number of hours spent in training and checking is now a politically correct process geared up to make sure the numbers of crews to a/c are never compromised, never.
Regulation needs to revert to the country and those countries with poor records must be helped further to ensure their operators come up to speed. Temporary bans on those countries will focus their minds but they must be monitored over long periods to avoid relapse.