This sounds like any business that you care to mention these dayes ...
1) People with the word 'manager' in their job title when they have no idea how to manage their own breakfast.
2) Everything based on pure numbers, as if they told the whole story.
3) People presenting 'results' at the end of the month that bear no relationship to what actually happened in the office/factory or on the shop floor/airfield.
4) The folks at the top having no though-line of knowledge and understanding (two different things!) to those who are actually doing the work that brings in the company's money.
Currently, the British Government is trying to run the whole country on this basis and, it is my candid opinion, it is not working there either! I have not seen this 'method' work in any company and do not expect to see it work in government or an airport!
OK, personal opinion coming up. I have never worked for an airline or an airport so I know know nothing! I have only been a pax at LHR for 38 years and working in commerce for 23 so ... I know nothing!
Eventually, it will all just get too much and too many holes in the Swiss cheese will line up and we will have a heck of a mess all over the place. It might start on the ground, it might start in the air but the current situation is unsustainable.
Human beings are holding a bad system together with their finger nails. People are working above and beyond to keep LHR (and the rest of the LTMA) working. They are keeping bread on the table of BAA and keeping all of us off the news headlines. It cannot last because these situations never do. The world is littered with similar stories (in other areas) and something will fail. We all know the nasty witch hunt that will follow.
To those of you that keep this deck of cards in balance - my deep appreciation and admiration for what you do.