Hands up, who remembers the days of PEX, APEX, Super Apex, and dodgy shops in Earls Court to bypass (illegally) the rules
Flew to Barcelona Economy for a weekend back in early 90s and cheapest ticket was over £300. Took the 24 hour bus from London to Nice as the air-fare was unaffordable. Biz class on my regular run back in mid 90s was over £3K to Toronto.
Not surprising if standards have dropped so much when real prices tickets wise must have dropped 50% or more.