Its amazing how the pilot community rounds on itself. Everyone blaming each other; pilots blame cadets for accepting crap contracts, cadets blaming unionised pilots for allowing it to happen.
The real "villain" here, quite simply, is deregulation.
Many years ago, aviation was state controlled, with inter-governmental agreements about who could operate what. It would almost certainly have fallen foul of modern anti-trust laws and equivalent. Anyone who remembers how the Bitish tax payer paid in excess of £1 Billion for a tent to commentate the millennium knows that when the state controls a project, all participants grow fat on the contracts.
Back in the 1970s at the height of state control a long haul skipper earned similar to a CEO of a FTSE100. Leaving aside the whole debate of modern boardroom pay, this was clearly an inflated amount.
But then the free market was let in, slowly, and by increment. Each loss of terms and conditions blamed on the incumbents for not "growing a pair". First it was the loss of the skipper's special suite down route then other more important things were attacked. Was the story of the abolition of the Captain's Cheeseboard at BA nearly provoking a strike a true story or a metaphor?
When the rot really set in pilots had to pay for an MCC, then a type rating, then line training, then crap part time/ self employed status.
Once the whole of Europe had deregulated and all the routes were open to free competition, why wouldn't the airlines choose to reduce their staff costs to obtain an advantage over a competitor?
And why wouldn't the prospective wannabe accept incrementally lower T&Cs than the previous generation. "Oh, its only an MCC, only £2000". Then "Well its a bitter pill to swallow, but if I pay an extra £20K for the type rating, I'll get the job that will see me earning £60K a year within a year or two". Then it came down to "If I don't pay for line training, someone else will, and he'll only spend 6 months at Easy, then get in to BA and live the dream". Were these decisions really illogical?
Many of the people who moan at the current generation for not choosing another profession like Law, Medicine or Accountancy almost certainly have never sat behind a desk and endured the boredom of sitting in an office for 8 hours a day (if you're unambitious enough to work 9 to 5).
The current system is terrible and I do not seek to defend it, but I don't think blaming the current generation for seeking what we have already achieved is the right way forward.