I have been of the opinion that the aircraft carrier has been obsolete for at least 25 years. We need space based assets to project a strike anywhere at anytime capability. The big blue is no longer sufficient to guard such a valuable asset. The Falklands should have been our warning to move off of these large over-expensive platforms.
Of course the Falklands could not - could not - have been retaken without using Aircraft carriers. The British had no choice but to use them.
Admiral Sandy Woodward made the defense of these two floating targets his main priority - and just as obviously the Argentinians made them their main targets.
They sank an aircraft-carrier sized container ship (the "Atlantic Conveyor") but never got near the real targets.
I guess the only alternative to expensive big-target carriers is to develop UCAVs that have the same/better firepower and capability as manned fighters - the carriers for those could be titchy by comparison.