barit1;
. . . all well and good.
But don't be surprised, and don't complain, . . .
If I may, surprise and complaint aren't relevant to the focus or thrust of the dialogue. Observation, thought and suggestion are not the same as having an involved, goal-directed interest, through which both elation and disappointment and their cousins, compliment and complaint, work. I'm retired and, along with a number of others here, am making experienced observations upon an industry which is mirroring and thereby following the desecration of the airline pilot profession. There is far more at stake here than mere disappointment.
It is the industry itself which must come to terms with itself and its unfolding, just as passengers must of necessity come to terms with the conditions under which air travel has devolved and the means and illusions by which "cheap seats" are made, if temporarily, possible. I don't believe in "Economics 101 laws" as viable lenses which make complex relationships and factors clear. "Supply and Demand" fails to explain and address (in terms of solutions) many economic realities, the present crisis included.
GHOTI;
I recall the Electra's problems well and know the smoke and smell of castor oil.
We can't go back to 1958 without the great and obvious dangers of cherrypicking our social and economic milieux. The industry is a far better one today than then and we are all far better off now than then. What has been achieved, as
Will so eloquently states, is nothing short of unimaginable by yesteryear's standards, and at relatively little cost.
What has happened however, is, the vision which created the safest transportation system in the world has, since the early '70's, been appropriated by a neoliberal vision of unbridled de-regulated profit-making regardless of the cost to others. If we telescope the intervening "if-then's", we may see a direct, though perhaps not a "mechanical" relationship between the loss of standards in aviation on the one hand and the "will to profit at all cost" on the other. It is that "turn" which I think is important to focus on and which may now be showing itself.
Aviation CAN be done cheaply and successfully as has been proven, but not by amateurs and MBAs or lawmakers who cater to popularity. That is the key here but, as was proven in Canada with "Jetsgo", anyone with enough money and no ethics can start an airline (and does), and come close to killing people before corrective interventions are undertaken "by the regulator". It all depends upon what the passengers themselves are willing to
live with and, through one means or another, pay for.