I recall on this forum in 2002/3, when BA was on its knees in the post 9/11 world, a lot of swagger about how wonderful QF was and it should buy out BA. How the worm turns!
The Londoncentric thinking, to which mandolino refers, baked in QF's problems a long time ago. The glory days under Dixon were, in fact, the golden autumn years with winter well on its way. Of course the answer to these problems probably could have been found in Abu Dhabi, but that probably required someone other than the incumbent being CEO along with a renewed chairman and board and that someone else is running another airline.
I fear VH-RMD's prediction may come to pass.