Comparing BA to the dinosaur airlines in the US is unfair to all parties.
Sure, the crappy and clapped-out pre-CrippleSeven and Dreadliner Boeings in BA's fleet are an embarassment, but BA has been on the downslide for decades/generations now. They can only go lower.
The slogan "worlds favourite airline" was well dodgy even when the ad execs thought up that thoroughly mendacious claim. That was nigh on thirty years ago. The world (except America) has moved on since then.