A dissertation could be written on this, but it would continue beating the dead horse. Bottom line: supply and demand. If everyone could fly a plane 14 days a month and make way more than 6 figures and do nothing else, who the hell wouldn't want to be a pilot? Too many people jumped on that bandwagon and those days are long gone. If all the young folks who want to be airline pilots realize this and there are no young folks doing anything to fly (taking embarassing salaries and schedules), what happens then? Wages have to be increased. I don't see the pool of pilots decreasing proportionately to the decrease in QOL, pay, and retirement though. Why? It's a relatively easy and fun job into which pilots are already hugely invested and pilots in general are not willing to do anything else.

As for the blue collar part, we are a blue collar work force with a skillset that takes a lot more intelligence and training time than that of most other blue collar work...that and we have a much more fun job. If we didn't like what we do, we would quit and do something else. The problem is, pilots spend so much time/money getting to where we are, we don't want to cut our losses and do anything else. Sit at a desk? Hell no.

Most pilots are smart enough and capable enough to be successful in other career fields. They choose the pilot path, even while complaining about pay/QOL.

There are alternatives out there. If you can get $100k into debt getting ratings, you can do the same to get an MBA which will typically yield a much larger return on that investment. You can get the military to pay for flight training and have no debt other than years of service (with a higher salary than you would get at a regional and in a lot of cases at a major). You can join the Guard/Reserves and fly for kicks on weekends and still have a civilian job. You can instruct on weekends and work a 9-5 where you aren't so "expendable" and your experience and continuity matters.

If you put all your eggs into one basket (the $400k/year 747 captain basket), you will likely find yourself dissappointed. There are a lot of other options and ways to fly that don't limit you to a cardboard box and ramen. You are as expendable as you let yourself be. If airline pilots are an expendable commodity and you don't want to be expendable, get a job where employees matter more. When enough people do this, pilots won't be expendable when airlines have a shortage of us.