It's fair to say that we (aircrew) do drink less at "work" these days, and there are plenty of reasons for it:
1. Mess life is very different from the Cold War/RAFG days as previously mentioned. People also tend not to live-in these days (post-OCU) unless there's something wrong with them
2. Drinking and flying really isn't big or clever - in fact it's totally unprofessional. It used to be "ok" to drink and drive - the RAF only caught up in the past 15-20 years.
3. You can be tested for booze/drugs after any accident these days. Read the last F3 accident report to see just how much detail they go into. Note - drugs or alcohol had
nothing to do with Kenny's crash, it's just the first accident report I read that made me realise just how seriously we are about alcohol vs aviation these days.
That's not to say we don't drink these days - happy hours are generally good but tend to need a catalyst to make them legendary these days. Dining in nights are usually followed by no-fly or gnd trg days nowadays (thank goodness
) so people can build their sheds without worrying too much about the morning after. But you'd have to be a real idiot to go flying with alcohol in your system.