Not sure we can lay this completely at the Swiss 'national psyche' door. It does seem that there was insufficient 'urgency' in the initial call and the 'reaction' to PAN PAN PAN is well known. I do not see anywhere what the problem was, and it appears it was not 'dramatic' enough to drop the pax masks. In any case, our checklists do imply we should try and 'solve' such a pressurisation problem at cruise level before screaming earthwards.