Dockjock, to answer your question : crew costs are always the first attacked because pilots never move a finger to say "no" and management knows that.
You don't tell fuel suppliers or aircraft manufacturers to lower their prices down. But you can easily tell pilots : "look, the airline's strategy now is to cut prices to passengers so we'll have to take some of your money away. No questions asked because you can only keep your mouth shut about the company's strategy".
Should pilots be a bit less fragile, passengers tickets would be a bit more expensive by only a fraction which probably would not change much to sales figures.
Instead, everybody's strangled : the airline as it's trying to dig out even the most minute of cost drivers, pilots (and stewards,let's not forget about them as they have to be saints to accept such low salaries) because they have that very strange feeling they're being slowly but surely munched away.
But passengers can at least fly for a couple of quids less than then they would without that specific pressure. Big deal for them.
Wait for pilots to strike again and you'll see all fares going up with passengers barely noticing.
We'll be waiting until hell freezes over...