I can say that I have never heard of a single person not flying somewhere because of the TSA or other security ruined flying for them. Maybe it wasn't actually good and you're just blindly believing the nostalgia of older folks.
This reduces my flying by a potential 4-8 round trip flights per year for me personally.
But to you first point, I definitely fly less than I would if we got rid of TSA. They're a fucking nightmare in my city.
I routinely flew for business before 9/11 and would typically show up about 15 minutes before boarding time at one of the three busiest airports in the US and typically got through security and would then had to wait 5-7 minutes before boarding would start. Air travel is radically different than it was pre-9/11.
There have been quite a few flights I've not taken because of the security gauntlet. I really only fly when there is no other realistic option -- which means I that I only rarely do it recreationally anymore at all.
Getting to the plane has become utterly horrible.
Not as easy as when I was pound atd you could walk right up to the boarding gate to meet someone getting off a plane, but definitely not horrible or even challenging.
However, that's with TSA Pre. I recently flew through Orlando and good gods that security line was a disaster.
I'm an Abolish-the-TSA type, they do more harm than good, don't get me wrong, but if you want to fly just go get GlobalEntry, and everything is quite painless. (right up until you get to the gate and the airline starts screwing you, but that's a different problem.)
It doesn't do squat for you if you're staying in the same country.
Yes, that's what I hear. That's well beyond what I am willing to do, though.
It was really good, as someone who flew pre 9/11. I remember reaching Logan airport 20 minutes before my scheduled flight in 2001 thanks to Boston's traffic. I walked to the gate unimpeded (nothing to check in). Zero stress.
Part of it is also that flights used to be much less overbooked and the overall experience was better and this isn't just nostalgia.
However I don't think it's completely fair to blame the TSA for the worsened experience. The threat model has changed since then. Add to that shrinking seats, worse customer service, more crowded airports, and the experience is much worse.
A few years back, we decided to minimize air travel and take a lot more local vacations. Yes, we miss flying but at some point the hassle exceeded the desire to visit exotic locales.
Did we fly like those nostalgic pics of businessmen and their wives smoking and eating steak? No, we stood like scared refugees, with heavily armed military personnel and German shepherds walking around scanning the crowd. I was a little kid in Zurich but remember it well.
9/11 may feel like a turning point in airport security, but it just brought to America what has been happening in other places at other times. And apparently made it permanent.
Also add in housing incursion to most airports where development has got closer making it near impossible for current airports to expand.