Flying has become such a terrible experience that I avoid it all costs. I'd love to take more trips, but the service is so poor that I can't justify supporting it more than absolutely necessary. I doubt anything will change though, the majority of other people seem to not really care.
As annoying as it is to be nickel and dimed I really can't complain when thinking about what is actually on offer. If I told my ancestors I was unhappy about traveling 2000 miles in 5 hours for $250 they'd rightfully slap me over the head. What a historically unprecedented capability for our species to end up on the opposite side of the planet in about a half a day.
You're right, but for me it's less a comparison between present day and before airplanes existed and more a comparison between present day and when air travel became common (sometime around the 60s). Of course we've made progress in the last 1000 years, but we've lost progress in the last 60 years. It's not a great trend.