Back in the day...you and your copilot did not carry NASA get out of jail forms (these were forms to “confess” to the government that you had screwed up, and by submitting them, you got a “get out of jail” card), and your Chief Pilot had Integrity. 

    In the age of the 707 Those were the good ole days.  Pilots back then were men that didn’t want to be women or girlymen. Pilots all knew who Jimmy Doolittle was. Pilots drank coffee, whiskey, smoked cigars, carried a weapon, and didn’t wear digital watches. They carried their own suitcases and brain bags like the real men that they were. Pilots didn’t bend over into the crash position multiple times each day in front of the passengers at some security check point so that some lowlife federal government employee could probe for tweezers or fingernail clippers or too much toothpaste. Pilots did not go through the terminal impersonating a caddy pulling a bunch of golf clubs, computers, guitars, and feed bags full of tofu and granola on a sissy-trailer with no hat and granny glasses hanging on a pink string around their pencil neck while talking to their personal trainer on the cell phone!!! 
    Being an Airline Captain was as good as being the King in a Mel Brooks movie. All the stewardesses were young, attractive, single women that were proud to be combatants in the sexual revolution. They didn’t have to turn sideways, grease up, and suck it in to get through the cockpit door. They would blush and say thank you when told that they looked good, instead of filing a sexual harassment claim. Junior stewardesses shared a room and talked about men, with no thoughts of substitution. 
    Passengers wore nice clothes and were polite, they could speak AND understand English.  They didn’t speak gibberish or listen to loud gangsta rap on their IPods.  They bathed and didn’t smell like a rotting pile of garbage in a jogging suit and flip-flops. Children didn’t travel alone, commuting between trailer parks. There were no mongol hordes demanding a seatbelt extension or a Scotch and orange juice cocktail with a twist. When the Captain decided to throw some offensive, ranting idiot off the airplane, it was accomplished without any worries of a lawsuit or getting fired. 
    Axial flow engines crackled with the sound of freedom and left an impressive black smoke trail like a locomotive burning soft coal. Jet fuel was cheap and once the throttles were pushed up they were left there, after all it was the jet age and the idea was to go fast. Economy cruise was something in the performance book, but no one knew why or where it was. When the clacker went off no one got all tight and scared because Boeing & Douglas built it out of iron, nothing was going to fall off and that sound had the same effect on real pilots then as Viagra does now for these new age guys. 
    There was very little plastic and no composites on the airplanes (or the stewardesses). Airplanes and women had eye pleasing symmetrical curves, not a bunch of ugly vortex generators, ventral fins, winglets, flow diverters, tattoos, rings in their nose, tongues, and eyebrows. Airlines were run by men like Howard Hughes, Capt. Eddie, and Juan Trippe who had built their companies virtually from scratch, knew many of their employees by name and were lifetime airline employees themselves…not pseudo financiers and bean counters who flit from one occupation to another for a few more bucks, a better parachute, or a fancier title while fervently believing that they are a class of beings unto themselves. 
    And so it was back in my day …. and never will be again.

give yourself another "Like" snowflake.  Maybe try another computer?

it was not just pilots, my aged friend.  most men in nearly all fields of endeaver (well, not "artists" and hair dressers) were of this mold.  from farmers to industrialists, the lifestyle was get it done for tomorrow will soon be here.  emphasis was on work ethic, personal integrity, honesty, responsibilty for ones actions.  all were integral to providing for ones family and offsprings present/future success and security

there are still a few, very few of them around today.  God bless them.  all the others?  i have no clue how they survive

the hair stylists had to get it done before tomorrow too which was "integral to providing for ones family". If the haircut was late, there was hell to pay but the hair stylists of today are not like the used to be, that's for sure but you're right about the artists. always late

atmosphere for systemic racism, vows court action.

https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/hangar-talk/32033-good-ole-days.html

Oldguy, I know how you feel.  I thank God I made to the end of a good career.  The world has changed so much. I don't think the youngsters will ever be able to think of flying the way we did/do and sadly I don't think they care. No.... not every generation has this feeling because of change.  This time, something has happened.

back in the old days, did the manly men cut and paste something off the internet that somebody else wrote 15 years ago and represent it as their own 

"Come on Man", it's done all the time.

the digital watch is what's probably most responsible for pilots becoming Nancy boys

back to. Does anybody seriously think that was a better time? You idiots have amnesia.

brought it down genius? 

Look at the years corresponding with the decrease.  How many of those years were you in the industry?

The rate has been quite acceptable, and declining slowly. The decline rate can't decline quickly as it is so low now.

 too much.

Kinda looks like a lot of things are coming back to roost as a result of our ignorant over exerted political and legal system having held hostage and retrograded the refinement and development of ethical behavior and common sense.

Another difficulty is that the US is geographically very isolated from the world and totally protected by a volunteer military which carries the burden of our questionable and potentially unethical mess of cultural devolution.  I say devolution because we're not adding to our equation, rather disemboweling our heritage, however good or bad, it is ours, no others.

Own it, work to improve it rather than tearing it apart.