To put things in a bit of perspective:

Until the late 60s (when I was a little kid), many airlines had first and economy class. Both had way better food and service than today. One of my memories is the absolutely great food on CP Air which we sometimes took from Montreal to Amsterdam.

In the 70s or early 80s, a number of airlines added business class - presumably bigger seats than economy, but not a luxurious or expensive as first.

In the 90s and later many western airlines started going back to a two class system (presumably because they had trouble filling the expensive first class seats). The top class is usually classified as business, presumably because it is not as expensive or luxurious as on airlines with true first class.


With all the griping we do today, it is worth pointing out how much more comfortable flying is today compared to the 40+ years ago. One real luxury today is the various forms of video available - I remember going stir crazy as a kid on on flights as long as 13h on a Lufthansa 707 with nothing to do. And in spite of the better service in those days, I wouldn't trade 1960s first class (was in it once or twice) for the 180 degree lie flat seats such as in Exec First which we have today.