Pace,
The real demise started with 9/11 the Terrorists won big time with the USA claiming that the Terrorists would never win against the freedoms
we fought so hard to achieve.
Look at the ridiculous state we are now in? The massive security industry that has evolved around 9/11?
For commercial aviation absolutely. In GA, it depends. Small airfields are still pretty much the same, but when it comes to having your Mooney parked on an international airport, yes, the security is there.
I think much of the security hype has to do with two things. 1) the US's drive to overcorrect the lax and unprofessional security which made 9-11 possible (I don't think any carpet cutter knife would have made it past security in Europe) and 2) once that was initiated, the industry realized how much money was in it.
On this side of the pond we then had the green attack again government seeing a mass of new departments, regulatory authorities all based around the Green issue and all to be paid for.
The cancer of Europe are artificially created jobs, goverment jobs, non productive jobs but the governments can claim that they have created employment.
Concur. This combined with a general attitude of envy against anyone who dares to "have something more" even if the private plane cost a fraction of that guy's BMW or even Toyota Prius ecomobile. And it's frightening to see how many of those green/socialist folks are actually working in the industry!
Re targets: Aviation has from the beginning been a very popular terrorist target and undoubtedly remains so. It is easier to blow up a train, but if you analyze who they want to hit, aviation is still the primary target. HOWEVER, that has nothing to do with the overkill post 9-11, the threat situation has not changed at all. There were nutters before and now. Yet, what is really depressing to see is that a buch of students with carpet knives managed to get the largest military power in the world on the run and give up it's principles instead of fixing what needed fixing and getting on with the job.
Best regards
AN2