Isn't it extremely sad that this thread has become about the relative importance of various trades...this is exactly the problem that is crippling the RAF now.
It's surely not about how any trade relates to each other, but how every trade relates to the outside world.
You can't hold an entire force for this many years' pay freeze, in the face of inflation and CPI/RPI increases and not expect a backlash...the civilian world is at least still attempting to maintain parity.
At the same time, manning 'restraint' in many trades has made them appear less effective - that's not an indictment about the effort of those remaining, more a statement on wider manning structure (or lack of).