But, you are totally right, we need to move away from voice based ATC to more digital systems that allow a management of more aircraft, and allow the GA aircraft to manage themselves through a "peer to peer" type ATC system, but like we have with our cars.
I'm pretty sure most of these planes from the 1970s are still merrily flying around!
The wikipedia article on the 1994 General Aviation Revitalization Act has a graph showing the astonishing drop in shipped aircraft (and the rise in unit cost!) since around 1980:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Aviation_Revitalizatio...
1 minute might seem like a lot when you're walking or driving, but when coming in at 200mph in something that weights hundreds of tons ... I want that guy 1 minute ahead of me off the runway ;)
And that's considering that existing traffic is of similar speed and ability. Adding slow, small, low-performance aircraft to the mix makes things very interesting ;( Then add low-experience pilots who have to stop and think about procedures, actions, radio calls ...
permission to back their car out of their driveway - It might be different if those cars cost $100M-$300M. A tiny bingle is very expensive.
I mean hell, imagine everyone having to ask the city car controller for permission to back their car out of their driveway, state their route and get for approval to drive all over the place without any regard for traffic and let the controller make sure there's nobody in your way.