10 years back a new aviator could call up an airline Chief Pilot or arrange a visit to discuss recruitment. Pilot Managers either were Pilots or still flew. Many companies had reasonable perks on travel and good pensions.
There were very limited major Airline sponsorship deals (BA,BM,Britannia, AirAtlantique) or you needed 700h for a CPL (UK) and went Instructing, banner towing, even crop spraying. This changed at the turn of the century with JAR rules and with it a decline in GA Instructor numbers. However, although the glamour days of Concorde and Manned Space programmes had long gone and post 9/11 had made air travel more onerous for the passenger, a Flying Career was still an interesting idea for many wannabees.
"The trouble with normal is it always gets worse"
(
Bruce Cockburn - Songs - The Trouble With Normal )
A few Flight Schools (Pilot Mills in the US) sold the idea that if you trained with them you could get the golden ticket and fly shiny big jets. "Integrated" was a term bandied around UK schools and a few of their chosen airline partners. No need to spend years working your way up from PPL through IMC, ME, BCPL, CPL, AFI, QFI, GA Turboprop, ATPL, etc
For a mere £70 to £120k you could go from zero to hero in 250h of flying training. You could work for your own money (£6k for 6 months) and maybe have a job at the end of it with a LOCO.
LOCO and the "Approved" schools brought with them what previously had been frowned upon - Pay for your own Type Rating up front. This became "normal" and STRSS/TRSS added £20-30k to Pilot training debts.
This seemed to work for a while until Increasing Greed, Mis-management, Demand for stupidly cheap travel, Fuel Prices, Terrorism, Green issues and finally a World Economy based on credit hit both Trainees and existing Pilot Ts&Cs.
Cadets now had no options after 6 months unless the LOCO offered them LOCO Cabin Crew work (so much for currency on type). Others went even further and actually PAID to Fly Passengers (another £20k for 150 to 500h of "Line Training"). PTF is a common thread on PPRUNE Ts&Cs section. Plenty there but in summary these folk have nothing but more debt after 6 months than the cadets they follow in the dole queue.
Since the 70s Pilot T&Cs in real terms have gone through the floor.
For those already in such Airlines, FOs wanting to get hours to become SFO or work towards a Command have had to sit on Standby while PTFs fly their sectors. Whilst TREs and Line Captains have to cope with more cockpit gradient due to inexperience.
Pilot Managers no longer have to understand anything about Piloting, Airliners become mere Buses to Accountants and Automation means Pilots began loosing some of the Skills they had started to learn at the very beginning.
For those who went the JAR route and straight into shiny jets, their regular A-B automated flights are more and more routine (both crew on laptops was a recent US example) . Airbus worries about Pilot Handling skills (Long Haul 3hr manual flying per year). Medics point to fatigue issues with LOCO 4 sector days or Jet Lag Long Haul. Managers just want to cut costs. 6/2, 6/3 or 2 weeks on 1 week off lifestyles can benefit Divorce lawyers, the list goes on and explains why many are down in the mouth about the careers they have chosen.
Stateside the Pilot Mills put youngsters into Regional A/c without much guidance. Salaries were so low (less than airport toilet cleaners) and jobs only available far away form home that Fatigue was a life threatening issue (Colgan crash 2009).
But some parts of the Industry do benefit. It's not just shareholders or CEOs. HR has grown massively with internet applications just one of 100 hoops for pilot wanabees to jump through. Give them psychometric tests, panel interviews, even hand writing analysis! (which doesn't work anyway!).
So Airline HR might be a better place to earn a crust.