I would like nothing more than to get back to the situation of ten years ago whereby an airline hired you, based on selection tests and interview, then paid for your MCC rating, Type Rating and Line Training whilst putting you in a hotel and paying you a starting salary (which was my experience).
That was my experience, 3 and a half years ago and many others more recently. Aside from Ryanair, this is a fairly new phenomenon, brought about by the downturn.
I agree, it's unlikely Easyjet will go back to anything better than this, but there still are more traditional airlines out there, with plans to recruit in 2011, who still do the above.
It's over at Easyjet, Ryanair and no doubt some other airlines. But there still are some other reasonable deals left once the upturn comes about and more people start recruiting.
In the long run, there will still be a pilot shortage. May sound silly right now, but air travel is still expected to grow substantially over the coming years. When that happens, I hope it puts sufficient pressure on airlines to stop this current rot in its tracks.
Lets not forget, that only 18 months ago, there was talk of BA re-starting it's cadet scheme again, as they were finding it difficult to recruit enough new pilots of the required standard. I know for a fact that was true and was only stopped by the shuddering credit crunch!