I think it's a definite turning point that some airlines are now advertising jobs on their websites! A few years ago you never saw that...jobs were all taken. Back when I was going through college you really had to have luck and connections to work at Delta, which then had a sterling reputation and very low turnover.

Once a job gets marginalized in pay to where you can't make it a career or part of a career track, the quality of those who'll take it really nosedives. Airport security pre-9/11 was a good case in point; the private contractors were paying screeners about what McDonald's was paying. People in those jobs will understandably reason that they're "not being paid to put up with the pax" and they can just take another McJob in another area if conditions don't improve. Higher turnover also puts more pressure on training, which is another thing the airlines don't really like to pay for. And seat downsizings and seat-pitch reductions aren't just imaginary.