Tightslot,
I agree with you; I'm not blaming the way people are treated as the sole reason for air rage.
There will always be those who become enraged at nothing.
But my point was that alcohol is not solely responsible, as many seem to believe, although it can and does exacerbate air rage. Remove alcohol, and there will be fewer cases.
But if you remove many of the reasons people become enraged, encouraged by alcohol or not, it seems to me self-evident that even fewer people will go over the top.
People now, with good reason, are in a suspicious and defensive frame of mind when they arrive at an airport. They just know that they are going to get ripped off, that their intelligence will be insulted by half-trained morons scarcely out of their teens, that they will be lied to, and that there is a high probability of their journey turning into a nightmare. It's not difficult for the airlines, airports and handling agents to put all of that right.
But it would take a sea-change in management philosophy and goals to create the will to put it right, and that isn't going to happen.
I'm one of a horde who now regularly investigate the alternatives for travel intra-UK, UK-Europe, and intra-Europe. And increasingly use them.
I have my Thales card, the best investment I ever made.