WunwingHAS IT:
What I noticed is that in my early days all ramp staff worked directly for airlines or fuel companies. There was a culture of awareness of the pilot or FE and that vehicles kept away from us during the walkaround process. By the time I retired most ramp staff were contractors with no airport culture or background and basically were so pushed by short staffing and cost cutting that they rarely even considered the situation.
That is the whole story of the airlines. Unfortunately, it is also the whole story of the greatest majority of commercial organisations. Now that govts also run the country like this - we are all taxying on an unlit pavement at 3 in the morning, at a 'port we've never been to before, after a 12 hour sector ...