The FAA is the ruling party in this business, and I would argue it is a good thing on the whole. The aviation regulatory structure is tilted towards the regulator, but domestic aviation is a safety critical form of transportation unlike the rest. Should the FAA therefore enjoy a license to be unjust with any worker it wants? No, but we cannot have dangerous people flying airplanes because they have the money to tie up courts with lawyers. We know for sure that where there is money there is legal power, and safety should not be held ransom to a pilot with a great lawyer. When the FAA truly gets out of line which they do sometimes, Congress gets in the loop and things are fixed. We have seen numerous examples of the latter such as the Colgan 3407 legislation. On the other hand I have no doubt some pilots have been treated very poorly by the FAA, and I see it as the price of a system that has the highest safety record of any form of transportation.