I believe the skills net is up to the IR now. I also don't believe you can train a monkey to get a cpl/IR - I found it very demanding anyway! At the end of the day it's the FTO's job to churn out pilots, you can't expect them to restrict that during a recession - that's up to the individual's choice of whether this is a good time to train or not (time to get the crystal ball out as to when airlines will recruit again).
Incidently, the 1st time pass rate is less than 50% for the assessments I believe.
I was lucky to gain a sponsorship back in the 'good ole' days', and the assessments for that were largely the same as is used now (with exception of the final interview which obviously only selected a small number of those that passes the previous stages). You could argue that final interview is now conducted after training (which benefits those who didn't do so well at the assessments but did really well at training).
You have to remember that before 9/11 when 75% of students were sponsored, 25% were simply let it in if they wrote a big enough cheque. The present system may not be perfect but I do believe it's an improvement.