It was stupid. They were trying to gum things up, slow it down, cause minor annoyances.
Being on the receiving end of it was frustrating, because there was no way out of it, short of “don’t fly”...and since that’s how I made my living, had to do it.
The funny thing is that they could have made it work. Everyone was on their side for the first couple of days...but then when they didn’t go back, opinion turned against them in the pilot world.
As for the people who took the jobs....well....the USAF controllers were OK, but the newbies hired off the streets were a challenge over the next few years. Definitely missed some of the older guys...
What people described as slow downs, was sometimes just that. Much of the time, it was just the controllers going strictly by the book and not cutting any corners at all. Working heavies the way I did, we had our wake turbulence separation requirements. I wouldn't run you closer than 10 miles behind an airliner, for spacing and wake turbulence both. When I was in Vietnam, we didn't have any wake turbulence criteria. I saw a Pilatus Porter take off right behind a C-130. The Porter was turned 90 degrees by the wake turbulence. The pilot did a great job to keep from crashing, but that experience stayed with me the rest of my career. We even had wake turbulence requirements between heavies. The pilots did not always like that, so it was always an adversarial thing. Officers don't like being told what to do by enlisted people. Finally, in disgust, I was able to retire at the first possible moment, and never looked back at all. There was some respect between UASF pilots and controllers, but not very much. Now, my son plans to become an Air Force officer next year. I just told him not to expect me to call him sir.
Oops, long rant, but I have been thinking about this for decades now.
:-)