I suspect this is employee burnout from repeatedly seeing their coworkers laid off and being told to "do more with less."
The airlines -- like all other MBA-run businesses now -- are titrating their services: They cut staff and pay and quality until customers start to loudly complain or leave and then they restore just enough staff or quality until the shouting stops.
They do this repeatedly in a closed feedback loop. Any CEO that doesn't work this way in the modern era gets fired.
I was in Italy recently and got chatting to one of the airport employees. She said she'd been working in airlines/airports for 20 years and it was fucked as a career because wages were decreasing, hours increasing, shifts getting less predictable, career/permanent staff being replaced by agency workers/temps and she had run out of fucks to give.
As a career, working in aviation is extremely hierachical and seniority based. If you're old, chances are you started making an okay amount of money and now are making absolute bank. Years of collective agreements and contracts have seniority king. If you're a new employee though it seems to be really shitty. The system is entirely tipped against you.
The airlines -- like all other MBA-run businesses now -- are titrating their services: They cut staff and pay and quality until customers start to loudly complain or leave and then they restore just enough staff or quality until the shouting stops.
They do this repeatedly in a closed feedback loop. Any CEO that doesn't work this way in the modern era gets fired.