This seems to happen more and more, announcements to the effect that "We're primarily there for your safety, that's a really really important job and it's been entrusted to us because we're so special, but in between doing our real job we might be able to come by and give you prretzels".

Just as in offices there are no secretaries any more, only personal assistants who do the work of secretaries (but never call them by the wrong name), FAs have developed this insecuirty about what they do. They want to be considered safety professionals; they do not want to be considered waiters. Of course waiters are professionals too, and I like to think (correctly or otherwise) that if I were a garbage collector (sorry, sanitation engineer) I would do that job proudly and pick up every scrap. But FAs aren't proud of what they have to do. And they don't get paid well (really they don't). So service standards have gone down, and we have a lot of snotty FAs whose idea of their job is to sit there pretending to be waiting for emergencies. "We may not be well paid, but we are more powerful than you right now, we can be rude to you and you can't be rude back because we'll have the plane diverted to Halifax."

Frankly, this is "dog bites man". The "man bites dog" news is when in spite of everything, you see many FAs who try to do their jobs well and are secure and confident and pleasant and eager to be of assistance. That, I don't understand.