At various US airline crewbases, as a pilot, you can watch a two-hour video (so you learn about ramp safety) , fill out a form and have a new ID card, which enables you to BYPASS security at your 'home' airport. You swipe it, punch in your top-secret number, and can bring any object you want up to an airplane, (hopefully some protein-filled snack to get you through a busy day, flying very fast-paced short legs).
All of our ramp employees never go through security, unless they just happen to walk down the concourse talking to some really tall, good-looking redhead (in a blue uniform?), probably towards the KLM gate etc.
When you folks stand in line at large US airports, look around. How many ground employees do you see going through Security?
I've had no problem with the TSA people, and most seem to be a bit educated and more worldly, which is a pleasant improvement. Y'all should remember what some of the previous personnel were like...that was a glaring minimum-wage issue, with hundreds of background checks 'allegedly' ignored/falsified by the contracting companies-and this was just at ONE airport, in Philadelphia, (PA)!!