Falling leaf what planet are you from. As the previous post replied CASA governs us. Airline Pilots are reponsible to a myriad of entities such as Managers of Flight Operations, Standards Managers, Fleet Captains, Check Captains etc etc.
I suppose you could if you want call our profession a trade, why not? Who cares. At the end of the day it is the value you place on doing it right and as a consequence safety that matters, getting everyone home and hopefully on time is what counts to me. The degradation of standards and pay etc will find it's level when we as a group stop lowering the bar. When that will happen is anyones guess.
I personally am well paid, happy and governed by a strong company with a safety philosophy. What if they start undermining that will I do? I don't know, it is a tough call. But I will not compromise my safety and the safety of my passengers; that I guess is the proverbial line in the sand
Che
Still fighting for Bovine freedom