I don't "blame" mainline pilots, just as I don't "blame" regional pilots. The situation airline pilots find themselves in today is due to a multitude of factors and all airline pilots, regardless of the size of airplane they fly or name on their paystub bears a little responsibility for the situation. With that said, one can't honestly say regional pilots "took" jobs from mainline pilots when mainline pilots themselves gave that flying away. It might have been given away under duress of concessionary negotiations, but it was given away nonetheless, surrendered in place of additional pay/work rules/retirement degradation.

Despite your, mine, and everyone elses' desires those jobs which have been outsourced will NEVER be back at mainline; the price in negotiating capital required to recapture that scope will be higher than mainline pilots are willing to pay; look no further than the current Delta/Compass integration discussion to see how pilots sometimes can't see the f'in forest for the trees.

While it might have been under threat and some even come during bankruptcy proceedings, that doesn't change the simple fact that concessionary changes in scope were approved by MEMRAT.

You can blame regional pilots, you can blame management, you can blame bankruptcy, you can blame the Bush Administration, the RLA, the NLRB, and the Easter Bunny for the current situation...it doesn't change what happened in 1991 with DALPA letting Comair fly the CRJ-100 and it doesn't change a majority of line pilots conceding scope instead of their other options.

Losing your pay, your workrules, your retirement...those things are tangable, measurable and immediate; losing scope is fairly ambiguous and not immediately or even easily noticeable. Well, at least until narrowbodies start being parked while a regional airline is filling that gaps with Jungle Busses or DCRJ-9s.

Again, forest for the trees...