> you mention the suits, so it's clear they are people of some higher status

Not really; having and wearing a suit is something that has increased in association with formality and higher class; it used to be de rigueur for a much wider slice of society, outside of contexts (e.g., actually doing physical work at the time) where it was inappropriate.

Granted, yes, it was more like Japan is today in that sense but never the less, I maintain my point that flying wasn't something Joe or Susie did, it was the something jetsetters did --people who could afford the luxury of flying. They were not your farmboys and bricklayers who went flying taking their kids on a cheap leisure vacation to Disney, etc...

Still, you see these people had crisp pressed suits, not ratty and raggy well worn suits.

Indeed; I believe casual dress in general-purpose, public adult leisure contexts was initially associated strongly with the upper/upper-middle classes and was seen as a signal of higher status, even in cases where the dress item in question was an appropriation from the working class (e.g., jeans).

This is one thing I remember from the movie Endless Summer: the two surfers still wear a suit and tie to the airport.

I still wear a jacket while flying. To me, clothing is an outward sign of respect to those around you and is very effective when interacting with airport staff. A smile and a suit coat can get you amazingly far when your flight is delayed, cancelled, etc. You are treated differently at an airport when dressed appropriately.

which, in 21st century, is plain wrong. if I go hiking for 3 weeks in Nepal and have only outdoorsy clothing with me, I should be treated exactly same as everybody else. equality and whatnot.

I know it's how we all react on daily basis, everything is evaluated with some emotional context, but that doesn't make it a good behavior and something to be okay with.

A lot of air travel was for work because it was so expensive, thus the suit wearing. You can hunt around for some pictures of flying in the 60s and 70s and fine no shortage of people in vacation gear or 'street' clothes but back then even street clothes were more formal (you'd toss on a sports jacket or fedora without thinking twice about it for even yardwork). A lot of what we see today in photos are carefully crafted PR and marketing pieces. People back then didn't have smartphones to photograph an average cabin, so we see these wonderfully staged photos of a gorgeous stewardess carving up a turkey for a well-dressed and posed family, which isn't exactly something common in flight. Do you really want someone on an aircraft that can jostle at any time holding a carving knife at your neck's height?

Also, that's not a plane, its a Hollywood set. You can't open the door mid-flight as the pressurized cabin won't allow you, at least past a certain year when all airplanes standardized on the inward opening door. Everyone is thin and glamorous looking because they're actors. Everyone is well dressed because the costume department made it so (no ill fitting suits or out of fashion dresses and skirts). No crying babies because it would ruin the drama. No elderly people having a coughing fit. No dirty looks if you happen to have the wrong skin color.

I also don't see how people smoking is supposed to be this wonderful freedom loving thing. As someone old enough to have been around where people smoked next to you all the time in just about any social setting, it was disgusting and unbelievably rude and entitled, on top of being a major health issue for those exposed to second-hand smoke, especially children. I'm not sure what the GP was implying but you don't want to go back to those days. A recent week in Japan reminded me of my childhood and that aspect of my trip was fairly unpleasant.

I feel like this is akin to working for a small company versus a larger company. Rules always cater to the lowest common denominator, because the people that make the rules are lazy and prefer blanket policies over stratified ones.

In a small team, the internet is not all clamped down at work. You are more likely to be treated like a mature adult. At a large company, they treat everyone like children because that one imbecile did that stupid thing that one time.

Now, the risk in acknowledging this phenomena is that you come off sounding elitist, "I want to join an exclusive club so I don't have the cretins dragging me down."