Capetonian
Management has lost contact with the operations people, and has failed to empower employees to make decisions in the interest of the customers.
In fact, they have done quite the opposite - they have deliberately DIS-empowered the staff!
In numerous threads in PPRuNe BA staff (at all levels) have stated that they cannot use any discretion that would involve the company in spending money. That means, effectively, they cannot do anything outside of the SOPS, from telephone agent, to check in to gate and all the way through to the far end when the system spits you out.
I recall reading (some years ago) of a pax on a VS to HKG just before the handover to the UK. The pax found themselves sitting next to Branson in Y. When asked, why he was sitting there and not up front? The proprietor said, "Because we only decided at the last minute that it would be interesting to be in Hong Kong at handover and then all the seats at the front were booked."
Suggest that to some (not all - but enough) of the BA managers ...