Airline passengers get what they pay for!
The majority of airlines don't even directly employ the ticket agents and/or ramp people. They work for contract companies called JETSTREAM, AMR, DGS etc. Low pay, no benefits, and these are the people who CAN get an airport badge! Most of the "applicants" can't pass a background/fingerprint check due to prior Criminal History and are never hired!
Same thing with the airplanes. Few of the "lawn dart" regional jets are owned by the airline! They are operated by: Air Wisconsin, Trans States, Pinnacle, Mesa, Mesaba, Freedom, Piedmont, Comair, ASA,etc. etc. etc. They are disposable planes and crews who are subject to losing their jobs and strarting over every time their holding companies contract is up for renewal. They are underpowered and usually are hard pressed to be able to carry all the checked baggage, if the flight is full. When that happens, the bags keep accumulating because the next full lawn dart has the same problem.
If you're "lucky" enough to be on a normal size airplane, if it's a DC9, it's probably 30-35 years old! Some 737-200 are the same! If a passenger walked into an airport 35 years ago and saw a DC3 at the gate, they would not fly on it!
As long as people are willing to go with a cheap seat and frequent flyer miles, so they can repeat the whole silly process in the future,, it's never going to get any better.
I will not even mention the fact that the Air traffic control system is unable to handle the volumes that the airlines are trying to stuff into Laguardia, Newark, JFK, Atlanta, O'Hare, San Francsico, Boston & LAX!
Coffee, tea or DRIVE!