An interesting post and great to hear from people who still love/like the job.
I think T&Cs are deteriorating in most, if not all, industries. I have heard the statistic about pilots not recommending the job to their kids but having had similar conversations with lawyers, doctors and investment bankers etc, I often get the same response (please note I am not trying to ignite a "who's worse off now" debate).
In general, my friends who fly for a living are the happiest bunch of chaps I know.
For reference, I used to be a doctor (switched careers - not to flying - yet) but left a few years ago. Morale was low and getting lower. Bean counters were tightening the screws:
- they took the bed out of our on-call room as they said we shouldn't be sleeping at night, even if there was nothing to do, because we were shift based but would then expect us to work over the next day if an emergency surgery overran
- they paid a nurse a handsome overtime fee to follow me around as the surgeon on call at night to monitor my activity to see if they could consolidate the doctors on call at night who cover different specialties - she usually parked herself in the A&E staff room eating their tea and biscuits while I saw patients
Since I've left I've had countless requests for advice on how to transition to something else from old colleagues/bosses etc who want to get out of medicine.
The problem with some careers is that people who dont enjoy them (and wouldn't under any conditions) stick around and complain vs. leaving and trying something else.