What the public and corporate managers do not see, and what we as pilots see commonly is the reality of fatigue inside the cockpit. Recently I flew into an Australian city. On descent the captain had the 'nods' and was barely awake after an all night flight. I have previously been in the final stages of approach when the captain was unresponsive to a radio call and needed arousing before landing. I have spoken to other pilots and they ALL have some common stories. Our hundreds of unknowing passengers deserve better regulations. These issues go generally unreported and have in some places become normalised for pilots, especially on long back-of-clock flights. This did not happen decades ago as airlines self-regulated well inside the limits. But relentless commercial pressures changed this - current rules were never designed to be constantly 'red lined'. I know of many cases where pilots are rostered minimum sleep opportunity only at awkward times - because old rules don't allow for this. All this current risk is for price of a slightly cheaper ticket. If this continues it's is only a matter of time before Australia suffers a major peacetime aviation disaster with sleep deprivation and fatigue being a prime cause. CASA know about many of these issues and I am aware many staff want to act against the commercial pressure. Ticket prices need to rise a little and maybe profits drop a little, but we will all be far safer. The Australian public deserve it.