I am no expert on inflation, but it does seem a little unrealistic to index to that all the time.
I mean a Cadilac now has A/C blowing through the seats, a 70's Cadilac built brand new today would be much cheaper to build than a 2016 Cadilac. So the cost increase inflation uses is also product improvement. I use to hear it form older guys all the time how much more building a house cost and they were for forgetting the 20k house built in the 60's didn't have 12' ceilings, granite countertops, central A/C, post tension cables in the slab etc etc. A 60's house built identical would be much cheaper and a true reflection of inflation.

You need to look at historical pay as a percentage of revenue, otherwise you won't know how much the company is stealing from you. Historically, pilot pay was 10-15% or revenue, today, at companies like Delta, pay is 3-4% of revenue. Thus, pay has to go up around 500% for you to be making a fair wage that has been with most pilots through the decades. In comparison, top executive pay is up 4000+% over the same time period.

But that does not really matter, the fact is you could buy a"state of the art" car, now you can't. And production efficiency must have increased, together with costs.

Cadillacs have improved a lot, but so has flight safety. If GM can demand more money because they are selling a better product, then so can pilots, because we are selling a better service.

Does anyone know what the pay/work rules/schedules were for some of the majors before deregulation?

I remember reading an article once about how much a 747 captain before deregulation made in at the time 2008 dollars. About $926k.

So adjusted for inflation, the highest hourly rate post-1978 was at United and about $446/hour. Like Gone Flying and others, I'd love to know more about pre-Deregulation if anyone has that data. Numbers I've heard range from half a million to $926,000 (thanks Phoenix). But if someone has substantive data, please please share. If we're going by the "Cadillac standard," a new CTS runs a little over $45,000, so you'd be looking at ~$550,000 a year.
This is also a smart post.