Interesting post Ixixly well thought out and shows the real issues at QF.
A question for you, why do companies not take those Employees who show exceptional skills and loyalty to the company and put them through an MBA with the intention of putting their experience within the company and industry to use along with their new skills gained through an MBA? .
In many industries this is the norm. Banking, Mining, Insurance, IT, Supermarkets, Engineering etc
Unfortunately the major problem in aviation is that generally speaking Pilots and Engineers don't really want to quit their line jobs to sit behind a desk. That unfortunately is a unique problem with aviation. As a result the standard of pilot managers is generally poor as the wrong people are promoted.
I would also imagine that for a line captain to quit his flying job and progress through the management ranks would result in a pay cut.