Did the OP ever stated his age and dependent life stage? All we're doing is relating our own predilections on staying or going based on our lives, which are not necessarily his situation.

fwiw, I love flying, but always detested the cyclical nature of the airline industry, so I went into government flying (mil). I'm not saying it's a preferrable option, it was only preferable to me. I do own my own aircraft, and I always have looked at that portion of my cost ledger as my transition away from paid flying if things didn't work out. I always have told myself if I was forced into a desk job, it had to have a baseline income that afforded me private airplane ownership. Otherwise it's a non-starter for me. I did engineering and academia while not making enough for an airplane to compensate. I was miserable.

At any rate, govt flying was a crapshoot too, so I'm not as much proferring it as an option as I'm just making the point that I've always treated the notion of civilian paid flying as a second-payer career. I know that may be offensive to the thousands of people who choose to make a primary-payer living out of flying for the airlines; that's just my prerogative. I'm now in a life stage where I have a minor child and wish to have a physical presence in his life beyond that of a migrant worker, so I prioritize a job that assures me that homesteading. To each their own.

At any rate, as to the comment about the mil job coing to an end before I can retire from work life. Noted. But that govt annuity, and more importantly, attaining de facto single-payer healthcare in my 40s (aka de coupled from employment outright) will allow me the flexibility to treat the industry with the commitment of a flaky college girlfriend going forward, for the piddly 12 or so years I'll have left between military retirement and my desired age for permanent retirement from full-time work. I know tons of people who have pursued airline work as a second career with solid govt pensions, and the ability to be able to pivot away when and if the lottery of timing doesn't work out through no fault of their own, is a very enviable position to have in relative terms.

To quote my favorite poker movie: You only lose what you put in the middle. Having a 50% income dependency from your household overhead baseline is a much less precarious position to be in when it comes to getting kicked in the teeth by an occupation known for being flaky and unreliable in the first place. As we say back home: "En guerra avisada no muere gente".

To each their own. Knowing the OP's life stage would help narrow down the advice. Good luck OP. Not the first nor the last one to deal with this transition. I'm glad I had this conversation at 15 years of age with my only close family friend and aviation mentor and not in my late 30s ( he was an Eastern casualty, lifer part 91 guy, staring at social security retirement, amazing human being but complete casualty of civilian aviation). Much luck and health to all in this downturn.