Mariner, I know that by and large you are not a fan of things American. But in this case you are correct in your loathing.
The US airline industry is now where the automobile industry was several decades ago. Providing an abominable product/service, complacent in their lack of service -- "customer be damned".
The auto companies were brought up short when the Japanese and then Korean companies learned quality control, produced a superior and more reliable vehicle and even spent some effort on customer satisfaction. Eventually they got the message, but by then a large percentage of the customer base was lost to the foreign companies.
The same thing must happen in the airline business in order for US "legacy carriers" to either wake up, or go out of business.