I have to disagree with this point as well. It seems logical. Air Fares in real terms have fallen significantly over the past 30 years and so, by extension, one would expect the service levels to drop.
However, as another poster pointed out, this does not account for the fact that other commodified service industries such as low-end restaurants and hotels seem to be able to have sustained their levels of customer service over the same period. And, if we want to look at the most commodified of all service sectors: Fast Food, there are major firms like McDonald's which are viewed as case studies of good customer service. I think there even is a story from Isadore Sharps' (founder of Four Seasons hotels) biography that he sat in on a day of McDonald's training because he was so impressed at how consistently pleasant his experiences were there.
Further, this also does not address the fact that there are vastly differing levels of customer service within the airline industry. Despite every airline experiencing the same fall in real fares, there are some airlines which are able to offer a more consistent and polite service than others - or at least a service which is rated higher in quantified surveys. At the bottom end is Ryanair and Spirit, and at the top is SQ et al. One could say that the discount airlines, which have been driving the commodification of the industry, tend to have worse service, but this would not account for the fact that airlines such as Southwest and Jetblue consistently rate very highly in service and higher than their legacy carrier counterparts.
What resonated with me on the youtube video was the dismissive and off-hand comments from the staff members. It generally does not happen to me (I'm a reasonably seasoned traveller so tend not to need any extra assistance and know where I'm going), but I've seen it happen to other passengers. Even if they're doing 95% of their job right, one badly worded comment can really ruin a customer's day. And it is especially infuriating because it is just unnecessary.
Does Air Canada have a particular problem with rude staffmembers? Relative to other major North American carriers I would say generally it is no better or worse... On the aforementioned range of Ryanair/Spirit on one end and SQ on the other, I'd place AC somewhere in the middle.
Not to take things too off-topic, but it seems clear by the relative number of likes to dislikes on the youtube video in question that AC does have a major customer service image problem. Has anyone looked at the CO case study in how it turned itself around, going from being among the worst perceived major airlines to the best?
^ Well said and I would especially concur with the bolded statement. That is where AC really seem to fall down sometimes (compared to WS for example) IMO. We've all seen it, I suspect, but in fairness same can be said for some US airlines' staff and it's also very noticeable in Europe IMO. The difference with FR and NK is that people expect poor service somewhat more because of the cheap price structure.