Lolz, take it you don't work in the industry.
You obviously don't know what the lifetime average pay is for a pro pilot, and no I'm not talking about what he makes way senior into his career, I mean all the "dues" this industry has going from 250hrs to finally that "above average income" thousands upon thousand of flight hours later.
And as far as "average" jobs, most folks eyes roll back in their heads before I'm even really that far into explaining the responsibility, knowledge, training, cost to get a CPL, recurrent training, medical standards, rules and regs, etc in my line of work. Yeah we maybe end up above "average", yeah that guy with 20 years working as a pro pilot makes more than the manager of a Hot Topic in the mall, you're damn straight he does.
And the industry will survive, you expect that amazon prime to get there overnight, you want to get from Seattle to Florida in a afternoon, or are you going to drive with your loud wife and annoying kids for 3 days staying in the crappiest of "road trip" motels? want to survive that MI you experienced 4 hours drive away from a trauma center, yeah brother aviation ain't going anywhere.
People still demand all these things yet we don't have a huge influx of new CPL students,even with the ATP mandate and that's partially due to the...cost of admission and I'm not just talking $$, of course as a government/military worker you are in a bit of a bubble, funny thing is from where I'm standing I'd be more worried about all your post service lifetime "benefits", than my outlook as an ATP.