Lyman;
I am a partisan. You should consider becoming one.
Now this, I understand. In fact, I have been "partisan" during my entire tenure here on PPRuNe and have written extensively on a neoliberal political economy since the 70's and government's increasing complicity especially post-deregulation in the late 80's, in enabling the legal circumstances under which shareholder value and corporate profit have singularly governed the approach to corporate behaviours over the past three decades. To the exclusion of all other values, this is how business these days is conducting itself and airlines are no exception. While shortcuts in aviation are not new, there is a brashness and robustness to cost-control which is, in my view, inappropriate to the tasks at hand in aviation.
But the BEA Report is not going to address any of these, and in fact the themes which you broach and with which I agree, require an in-depth and informed discussion all by themselves. Read from this pov, your entries make complete sense.