Safety margins are being gradually eroded in the search for profit ...
This sounds like a great headline, however if you look at the safety statistics, on the whole quite the contrary is happening. SOPs, technlogy, automation and safety audits have made aviation much safer since deregulation, despite all the financial pressures bought about by free for all competition. Safety and push for profits are actually complementary - as someone famously said "if you think prevention is expensive, try having an accident". Lower life forms like MOL know this very well - you can abuse your customers all you like as long as tickets are dirt cheap and safety is not compromised. You can bash FR for a number of reasons, but their safety stats are no worse than any other european mainline operator. You may be right in assuming that all management cares about is profits, but any half-competent airline management will know that nothing hurts profits more than a well publicised accident.
The bad news for the profession is that SOPs+automation+shorter training is actually cheaper and safer than 40+ years hand flying experience.