I think you're out to lunch. Most of the general public views ALL legacy airlines as "pompous and arrogant a$$holes." I mena, if it's not JB or SW, everyone else sucks. Maybe you are one of the ones that had a bad experience on AA... and as such, you claim that "everyone thinks AA is evil."
Like AAflyer said above, I usually get great comments from the pax deplaning my flights. I think overall we have a decent product, but nothing spectacular. As in, we are a typical legacy carrier that pleases a lot of people, pisses off a lot of people, but most people don't notice much difference bewteen us and, say, DL, UA, etc.
A lot of AA employees are ex-other-airline types, and for the most part they provide great service. That said, if you have a grudge against AA for something that happened, I can't blame you for having a negative view of them. However, if you find yourself on one of my flights, I can at least try and change that view.