For some strange reason, this "de-evolution" scene reminds me of one of the scenes in the movie "Real Genius".

First scene, professor lecturing, students taking notes.
Second scene, prof lecturing, half students taking notes, half of the desks have micro tape recorders sitting on them.
Third scene, prof lecturing, all desks have tape recorders on them, no students.
Fourth scene, reel-to-reel tape recorder on prof's desk "lecturing" to desks full of tape recorders.

Anyway, back on topic, I feel for a lot of what the FA's have to go through these days; post- 9/11, I've never seen an industry go through so much public scrutiny and internal change (which really began long before 9/11).

From what I've observed flying heavily over the past 4 years, U.S. airline employed FA's generally have no idea what their employer's going to take away from them next (unless it would be specifically forbidden in their CBA), there's little job security (unless you're over 20 years in and that's not even a guarantee), the job changes weekly, the pax are getting ruder and more bold with the levels of antisocial and ungrateful behavior, and they have to listen to all the garbage from grump-o-saureses regarding seat pitch, meal and booze cutbacks...like they were the ones behind the decision in the first place. How some FA's keep a smile on their face after some of the flights I've been on is beyond me...you'd really have to be strong in being able to let sh!* go, IMHO.

Taking away FA's would be like inviting Jack the Ripper over to babysit or letting the lunatics run the asylum; of course, that's not really going to happen. For me, the FA can almost make or break the quality of a flight; I must either be flying the "right" airlines or lucky, because 99% of the ones I fly with are terrific, personable, hard working professionals.

I understand that labor costs are a highly significant part of the operational costs for any company, but treating people with dignity and respect (and this goes both ways)costs nothing.