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The cost of flying has gone down significantly over time so I would not be so sure about that.

The price per square inch of human space has probably stayed the same after inflation adjustment. People on average are just more likely to buy cheaper seats than more room, so by natural selection we get smaller seats.

Fares have come down in absolute dollar terms (let alone inflation adjusted) over the last twenty years, while economy seat sizes have barely changed.

What has changed is yield management — airlines have got much better at flying with as few empty seats as possible. So the main thing that has gone down to allow prices to decrease in real terms is your chance of getting an empty seat next to you.

Economy seat sizes haven't changed? Do you have a source for that? I'm including leg room when I say size has decreased. I honestly don't know but would be surprised, common wisdom is that leg room is much less over last 30 years.

I've had my knees touching the front seat for as long as I can remember, it was already this way in the 90's. Maybe it's airline dependent.

They definitely have. I recently got an old plane for a low volume flight, and the difference was night and day.

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