Clare, I'll be on to you when I retire from the airlines and go back to my roots with a Gr 3 IR.
A long time ago, there were still the spivs and rip-off merchant employers. Plenty of people did pay for flying, too. Aviation has always been expensive and this has represented a barrier to employment.
Since 2001, there has been a change in employment practices at the airline end of the game: Virgin, Jetstar and Tiger want you to pay for entry into your job. There are no shortage of applicants, so this is the new industry standard.
In the days of the Two Airlines Policy, the companies paid good terms and conditions. However, industrial laws allowed the application of a "2 chances and you're out" policy for those who struggled to check to line. Contemporary Employment law means that re-training, counselling, time off, assistance, learner support, choice of trainers and checkers, etc, must all be offered to those who in previous days would have been culled earlier.
Aviation has always been full of those who think that they were Ace of the Base, Top Gun types who had Mummy and Daddy pay for their flying, pull strings, subsidise, support and otherwise bank-roll every thing that they did in life. You think that these guys didn't have an overblown sense of self-worth? Many of them made me wanna puke!
The bottom line is that the airlines had pretty good recruitment strategies and could be more selective. They could pick and choose from a pool of GA pilots and vet them rigorously. Recommendations from 'mates' (ie: Virgin's 'Blue Star' policy of jobs for mates-and then people at Virgin wonder about nepotism when the whole recruitment methodology of the time was founded on exactly that!). If they didn't cut the mustard they were out the door.
Aviation these days doesn't offer the income, glamour, security, life-style that once made it competitive with other industries. Additionally, there are more aircraft flying around that need to be crewed. Got 2 arms, legs and a head? Have you every knowingly killed a public official? Great, you're hired!