Career progression has always been a crap shoot, and none of it is in your (our) control.

It's actaully a great argument for Longevity Pay!

Where's T Square? You heard it here first!

Right off the top of my head, I can think of several reasons the Lost Boys are in such bad shape:

1. 9-11 and subsequent furloughs
2. Airline Bankruptcies and shrinkage
3. Age 65 and 5 years of stagnation
4. The market crash of 2008 which lead to...
5. Industry consolodation, where 5+7=10 in terms of pilot jobs
6. Fuel prices, causing a slow economy, and more airline shrikage
7. Europe's economy, killing a lot of our trans-atlantic flying

What'd I miss?

Bottom line; the last 12 years have sucked, for everyone, but especially for the ones on the bottom of the list.