The pilot shortage has been building for decades. That’s the reason the mandatory retirement age was raised from 60 to 65 in 2007. The real problem is that it’s become way too expensive for the average young person to get a pilot’s license on his or her own. So far fewer people are learning to fly. When I got my license in the 70s, I was paying $22 an hour. $14 for the airplane and $8 for the instructor. And that was the wet rate (meaning fuel included). And I learned in a Citabria, which cost $1 an hour more than the usual Cessna 150. Today the wet rate plus an instructor can easily reach $165 to $200 an hour. Not to mention, today’s kids would rather play video games or protest some imagined grievance. So a lot fewer people in the pilot pool today.
Plus, who wants to be a commercial pilot when that means you are the public face of “woke” airlines that spit in the face of their customers constantly?