Meccano
Since becoming a SWIRE (Brit) company in 1948, Cathay took on a distinctly Brit flavour. Throughout the 70's and 80's the worldwide pilot population considered it to be ' run by the Brits', and that included Flight Ops. The top men were always - Brits.
Utter rubbish. Your straw poll of what the worldwide population considered does not change the facts.
Then in 1989 the ANSSETT debacle occurred and hundreds of desperate Aussies were thrown on the world market (debasing it for the rest of us - its the point where our profession started to sink). Many of those Aussies ended up in CX, and brought their mates on board later. They formed a large clique in the company and by the mid 90's had edged the Brits out. It then became an ' Aussie Airline' (God help us) and remains so to this day. That may change soon though since CX are now looking further afield for new pilots I believe. The next clique will probably displace the Aussies in the next 10 years. Cliques exist in every 'expat airline', and even in the flag carriers they have the 'ex-Mil pilot cliques' and the 'Cadet cliques' - (subdivided by year). C'est la vie. Live with it.
Utter rubbish again.