Oh I totally understand about breaking the mold costing money and it being a race to the bottom as customers seek out cheaper fares, but my original question was why are the US airlines (especially the legacy ones) able to offer such an inferior product compared to others. Of course they have to answer to shareholders, but so do many other airlines.
It is just strange to me that in a region of the world known for customer service and offering consumers a choice, the airlines have such a (often justified) bad reputation. But maybe that is a topic for a different thread.......