The decline of customer service

I'm just so annoyed today. I've spent my entire morning and all I've done is make 2 phone calls. My to-do list for today is long and I even had a completely different subject matter planned to write about today but think it can wait. I need to write about this.
I've been noticing lately that there is a significant decline in customer service. I'm sure you've noticed it too but just were too frustrated or out of time to deal with it.
Done any traveling by plane lately? If you have, I'm certain that you sat, squished into that teeny tiny little seat stalled on the runway for at least 15 minutes. More likely 30 or more. It has become the industry standard. Pack 'em all in and sit on the runway. Why?
My dad is a pilot and he explains to me that this is the "money line". The way that pilots and flight attendants get paid is by "flight time" and flight time only begins once the plane has pulled away from the terminal. So, because of this, the flight crew has an incentive to sit on the tarmac rather than in the terminal where all the rest of us would be much much more comfortable.

Called tech support? Called any large company for that matter? How long were you on hold? I've been experiencing crazy long hold times and minutes and minutes of push 1 for this or enter your account number automated garbage before even being allowed to start waiting on hold.
After being on hold with Endicia for over 30 minutes today I gave up. The entire time thinking about checking out their competitors because it is crazy. I think, the next time I hire a new provider or begin paying for a service of some sort I'm going to try calling their customer service line first. If I can get through in a reasonable time (ie, less than 10 minutes of hold.... and even that is too long!) I'll consider their service.
I was calculating the cost of my time and today, I've wasted over an hour on hold and one of the companies I'm still going to have to do it all over again! I would benefit tremendously by hiring someone for minimum wage to sit and wait on the phone while I get some real work done.
Customer service has gone down the tubes and I applaud eBay for setting the DSR bar so high so that it gives sellers an incentive to improve their service. Now if we can just get the phone companies, cell companies, cable companies, airlines, insurance companies, city governments and all the other players who are notorious for their poor service to get on board.