Yes, we can blame deregulation.
Guest spoke on CNBC the other day named Wilbur Ross. Said the US needs to "decide what we want to be good at as a country". He's got a good point and aviation is the perfect example. American aircraft manufacturers are the world leaders. Airliners, bizjets, single engine pistons, etc, etc. Everything that flies. We lead in world air cargo, we lead in biz av and in fractionals. Shoot, we invented powered flight! But what do we do with our airlines? Our legacy, flag carrier world wide airlines? We cripple them with deregulation. We used to be world leaders, remember UAL once had a base in Europe. Northwest had operations throughout Asia. But at home, we screw them. So a whole bunch of people who probably don't need to get around the country for less than their own auto's gas? It's BS. We did as much in the housing market and the bubble burst. Lot's of folks that couldn't afford a house got one and now they can't pay for it. We haven't had that sort of correction in aviation, but it might be coming soon. Unfortunately, the only thing forclosed on in the airline business is airline worker prosperity.
It's not just deregulation. The Railway Labor Act has been a wicked master as well. We've suffered equally under these instuments as a means to get the massess cheap airline tickets.