manny fred
Given your age and you location, you must have noticed the degradation.
I'm not talking merely about people knowing all the ins and outs of avionics and aerodynamics etc. I'm talking complete basics such as an appreciation of what other controllers workng for the same company do.
Example. Last year during particularly bad weather we (TC) stopped quite a few SIDS from departng altogether and put a very restrictive MDI on others (this was after numerous aircraft refused to fly the SID - to the point of one EGLL DVR departure flying a southwesterly heading from departure and refusing to turn left until 10 miles from SAM).
The weather was moving through but we and AC were still having major problems. Despite this one tower in particular (a major one) kept phoning and asking for a lifting of the restrictions.
The final straw was when one of the ATCOs at the tower stated "The airfield doesn't have any weather over it anymore - we can see out the windows you can't. Why can't you let aircraft go?".
It is this complete lack of appreciation of the tasks and problems of other controllers that is the worst thing.
What you need to realise is that people are berating the system that has led to a reduction in experience, not the trainees that have suffered because of it. However, just because the system is at fault, it does not mean that OJTIs should be happy with the result - we should not have to teach basics to trainees who have no knowledge because of the actions of penny pinching management.
People tend to forget that in ATC, good training is one of the very most important things... probably second only to safety - but of course that's a service providers thoughts, not a businessmans.