I am a category called Passenger. Worse still, Customer. There is a special word for organizations obsessed with categories. Bureaucracy is not about red tape or people who sit on their butts. Bureaucracy is about categories, and airlines are the most categorizing organizations off the face of the earth.
Bureaucracies are also about controls.
Imagine a ticket agent who smiles voluntarily, a pilot who is genuinely interested in not interrupting your peace and quiet, a skyway with paintings by the children of the ground staff. In my day job, when not flying, I study bureaucracy. That means if we want it big, and calm, we must take it bureaucratic. And if we don't like Sardine Class, and want to go like a dolphin, then maybe we should buy a wetsuit. So perhaps we shouldn't blame those flying people of the skies.