I agree, I have always believed that the blame for the current farce lies firmly with those that first accepted the current way of doing things. Had they all rejected, i'm sure things would be better today. For the forseeable future though, with thousands applying to these schemes the airlines and FTOs have no reason to stop the current method and they won't.
Finally, N.America is alot worse than the uk for wannabes. I mean how many american airlines offer schemes that can get you in the right hand seat of a jetliner in 18 months ?, fair enough the pay is horrific for the first few years, but i'd rather have that starting salary working on an A320 than slaving away in some flight school with your only hope of getting out of it being a turboprop @ around $12,000 dollars a year. For the current moment, you either suffer for the first few years or go look for something other career.
Personally however my dream has only ever been to be a pilot and it aint't gonna change. I would much rather spend the £45,000 that I would doing a degree in something that I have absolutely no interest in (leading to a very boring life for me) on flight training leading to my dream job.