Fly the Friendly Skies

I'd love to. Where are they? I hate flying. Really, really hate it. And for so many reasons, but I'll only fuss over one today. I have serious issues with the way airlines keeping shrinking the seat spaces. The side to side shrinkage is annoying, but manageable, as long as the person next to you is thoughtful. It does happen sometimes. It's the room, or lack of, between my nose and the seat in front of me that is a bigger issue. The gentleman in front of me, and it's always a man, reclines his seat as soon as possible and leaves it there for the entire flight. I've been on flights that lasted thirteen hours and it's always the same. He could be dead for all I can tell. Now the seat only goes back about four inches, but there was only twelve inches or so to start with. Now I only have eight inches of air space and despite my best efforts to stay calm, I'm feeling a little panicky. To add insult to injury, after reclining his seat, this gentleman crosses his arms on his chest, puts his chin on his chest and goes to sleep for the entire flight. Nothing disturbs him. But I'm disturbed because I can't sleep on even the longest of flights. In addition to that closed-in sensation that I'm trying to ignore, standing up is now a decidedly tricky operation. Leaning back, I lift myself by the armrests and try to levitate into the aisle. I didn't have this level of gymnastic skill when I was young and limber. Now, it verges on the impossible. I end up grabbing onto the man's seatback, giving it a good bounce, as I complete the maneuver. He doesn't move. I was recently on a cross-country flight and on the first plane the seats didn't recline. They moved barely an inch. This was incredibly frustrating to the man in front of me who tried to make it move by slamming back into the seat with increasing intensity. I held my breath, waiting for the whole seatback, with him, to land in my lap. Thankfully, that didn't happen. I had a little air in front of me and I was able to stand up and move to the aisle relatively easily. Do you think the airlines noticed the problem and this is their fix? Dare I hope?