Management used 9/11 to do what they had wanted to do since deregulation. They waved the magic wand of bankruptcy and made you all middle class in the blink of an eye!
One cannot fault management for just doing their jobs. And let us not forget that management could not do that without the cooperation of many pilots willing to hand everything for the sake of flying a jet. They, management, wouldn't have been able to wave the magic wand if the majority of pilots hadn't collectively given them the wand in the first place. Regardless of the fact that pay, benefits, and retirements have been shredded, it sure beats working in a cubicle, right?
Don't fault management. Nowhere in any business course are future accountants taught the pilots are owed six-figure salaries.