I think the point here is the syllabus and hours breakdown are two separate things. The hours breakdown is not beyond the realms of possibillity and is based on the military experience of yesteryear - fit young men, entusiastic, eating living breathing flying 24 hrs a day, pre selected for aptitude! That and a system that required folk to reach certain thresholds along the way in a set time ie rate of knowledge and skill aquisition (quite right too if the taxpayer is to get value for money) The PPL is for folk who self select, have a wiiiiide range of abilities and potential for actually making an effort, and who have one eye, not unreasonably, on their wallet.
So, what we need is value for money for the fledglings - good, well planned instruction, with a structure and an aim - with a degree of honesty about standards of competency that need to be reached, the time taken of course dependent on many factors and varying with the individual concerned, which in my experience people have not found unresonable
This all sounds like a truism, sorry...I'll go fly as the sun is actually shining