I look forward to reading the article when it is posted here, but an article put together in only one week can only begin to scratch at the surface of the morale and fatigue problems faced today.
September 11 has changed our working environment dramatically. Faceless beaurocrats produce one edict after another which greatly affect our everyday working lives. As has been already asked on this thread, are we really prime suspects to hijack our own aircraft? If so the new secure cockpit doors must be a great assistance in our endeavours.
Why have our family been banned from the flight deck? Again complete strangers who happen to have a reasonable likeness of an ID and claim to be on duty or representing an authority are permitted. For absolutely zero security benefit we have had the ability to take family members with us severely depleted.
Mismanagement leads to low morale, and our industry seems to attract the worst examples of mismanagement. I sometimes wonder what a fortune there is to be made by an airline with good management, where the staff are not treated as an unfortunate necessity. Maybe an example exists in USA.
Over recent years and in certain airlines the pilot's role has been downgraded at the expense of other members of crew. No account seems to be taken of the long and arduous training undertaken to achieve a licence. This has affected pilot morale, and is due to internal politics between departments at some airlines.
A normal social and family life is difficult enough with inevitable working of unusual hours, but now there is the added worry that even a glass of wine on the day before a flight could in some circumstances be career threatening.
Finally there seems to be a misconception that in order to offer cheap fares pilots must be worked to legal maxima (which themselves need addressing) and paid as little as possible. I think personally that most passengers would be happy to pay an extra 50p to have well rested pilots at the controls, and for 50p a passenger pilots hours could probably be halved.
Plenty of scope for future articles, I think!