Todays Aviation & Travel Problems - A Repeat of 1967

In my rummaging around trying to find something to ease the pain of airline passenger delays across the U.S., I came across a very interesting article in the September 24, 1967 Los Angeles Times, titled: The Sky No Longer A Limit In Our Crowded Airways - written by Rudy Abramson and Ronald J. Ostrow (both members of the Times Washington Bureau). Well, "bust my buttons", that article could have been published today, and no one would know the difference in time.
The article (good reading) set up the late afternoon jet departures from John Kennedy airport (NY) followed by similar departures in Newark, Philadelphia, and Chicago, waiting in line for takeoff, followed by descriptions of layer upon layer of flights in holding patterns at various altitudes, working their way down to the bottom of the stack to get in to their airports, at the same time. (Frustrating, Yes!) If that were not enough, incoming flights further out were instructed by FAA Controllers to reduce their airspeed (to delay their arrival at these airports) until the traffic jams were cleared. The article indicated that the mixture of jet passenger carriers with GA airplanes together in the same airspace compromized air safety and that mid-air collisions were more numerous than those reported. The article also cited the average number of takeoffs and landings at Chicago O'Hare airport numbered 44 every second around the clock, which added up to more than 60,000 per month, and that most of these instances were packed into a few hours. (And don't we have the same situation today?).
The article continues with air travel estimates of 7-8% given for 1967, which turned out to be 17% and cites a 16% increase for the previous year. The estimated increase of airplanes in the sky from 1966 to 1976 was 104,000 to 180,000 (that's 4,000 per year). The increase in air travel today for similar periods were passenger traffic increasing 2.7%/month and 32.4%/year.
This would indicate, at such rates, that over the next 10-20 years air travel will more than double.
This phenominal growth, the writers said, was attributed to people with money to spend, the untimely demise of railroad travel, and the inadeqacy of auto travel for long distances; whereas the problems involved were absurd levels of competition resulting in jamming more and more flights into peak hours of traffic, and the timidity of Government to tackle the problems. A White House study of airport problems was mentioned, however this study was never made public. The writers believed that this study recommended a federal corporation which would guarantee loans for airport construction and improvement. (Sound familiar? We did have the Civil Aeronautics Board at that time - 1940 to 1984 - but money for airports? And we have to remember that Congress deregulated the airlines in 1978).
The article concludes by saying that American living has been tuned to the spread of the jet (I'd say more fine-tuned to the efficiencies of the jet). The article also stated that the Aviation Industry and the FAA recognized that the biggest growth in air travel was still ahead.
And they were so ri ght - but very little has been accomplished to accommodate that growth since 1967. We need to get "going" - we need a starter. The sky is no longer a limit in our crowded airways. That's true, and we have most of the same problems today as we did in 1967 - and maybe some additional ones, too.
May I say again, let's get started with a National, not bureaucratic, study and oversite of our aviation and air travel problems - and a plan for the near and distant future. Thanks for listening. RS.