From virtually zero hiring in the late 1970's (except for the wonderful little bubble in 1978), to have what - 6000 /yr at the major's? That's incredible. And it doesn't mean that all of a sudden there are all these brilliant people out there - it just means it's cyclical.
As far as wash-out in the military, there's no doubt that they push you hard. But how many of them were "military bearing" wash-outs? Mil flight training has different goals from civilian flight training. And those goals don't necessarily have anything to do with flying for a carrier.
Case in point: we had a woman go through a pre-employment sim prep at a place that I was teaching in the late 1980's, early '90s. Her name was Bonnie Warner. She had all of 900 TT when she did the sim prep, and of course was promptly hired by United (leaping over 4000 hr Mil pilots in a single bound!). Course she did have that Luge (or bobsled, I don't remember which) Gold medal in her pocket...good P.R. for United. So, did she auger in? No. You know that. The adage is, "Hire for attitude, train for skill". Yeah, right. Translation: pilots at major carriers are hired for other things than just experience. And you know it.
As far as it "taking more time than even an MD", Oh Sure. Tell Bonnie Warner that. Or tell some jerk who bought his ticket at Comair, spent two years there in the right seat of an RJ and then got on at MajorCarrier Inc. It happens, and usually just because he was there in the season they were hiring.