There still remain many, many opportunities in the US for pilots to acquire the 1500 hours necessary to make it to the right seat of a jet, or turboprop. Remember that when the regional industry began in the US (not that long ago), those carriers were operating simpler (by comparison) aircraft such as piston twins, carrying fewer passengers over shorter distances.
Here's the rub - in Europe there just isn't the volume of GA opportunity that you have in the US.
This doesn't mean I don't disagree with tightening up on pure P2F etc.
However, our politicians are famed for making rushed and ill-advised decisions (such as closing down euro airspace with E15) so it will be interesting to see what happens over here.