WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?
Simple. Sometime in the '80s (give or take) most of the state owned behemoths and non state owned but heavily subsidised carriers were cut adrift and told to make their own way.
Democracy came along too - even the great unwashed decided they too could take a flight for a fiver, and how many fivers does it take to tip the driver?
In addition, our skills base became transferrable and globalised. Or to put it another way; 'It doesn't matter what you do or make in this world, someone will always come and do or make a ****tier job of it for less'.
In our case, a few will come and do the same job for less.