Now the airlines are run by 'accountants' who wouldn't know a 747 from a coach.
Accountancy is a profession separate and distinct from
management. I think what you mean is that we have a lot of people who have an MBA parachuted into high level positions without the requisite experience. Now that's a fair comment but as someone aiming to do an MBA soon, a little harsh. Really good managers are as rare as Hens teeth. There's a lot more economic activity now but the talent pool of really good all round management just isn't there in the wider economy. Making money in commercial aviation when half your competitors are still cosy cartels or government funded vanity toys isn't easy.
As an airline employee the old days really were the good old days
I think what this really translates to is that into the 1980s, only people of a certain
calibre were able to afford the ticket at all. Remember it was the good old airline men who met up to fix the price of the tickets. Compare a BA / Aer Lingus duopoly on London to Dublin in the 1980s to the situation today. We cannot in all honesty be getting nostalgic for that surely.
I think the major driver is that today :
People don't know what they want
Have no sense of decorum or value
Know the price of everything and the value of nothing
Try marketing to that lot !