Shareholders don't have visibility into the internal workings of SWA that would have been necessary to predict this. Sure, there's a lot of information you have the right to, but if you're investing in a diversified portfolio, you eventually are limited simply by time: you can (and should!) do some research on a company before you invest, but ultimately if you're investing in, say, 100 companies, you only have time to dig so deep into each one.

And this is efficient capitalism for the people who have the visibility and decision-making power. C-level execs are measured by their ability to produce growth, so they do that, even if it's not sustainable, because while they're producing growth they're receiving massive amounts of income. When it all falls apart, the income they've received over years of short-term decisions is safe and they can, at worst, retire.

The capitalists who did think short term will survive, too. The people who made these short-term decisions over and over again; the C-suite executives; they've already banked millions of dollars. If they even lose their jobs, they'll just move on to another company or retire.

Whoever replaces them will have to fix some of the problems for optics reasons, but ultimately will be operating under the same short-term thinking, because that's what capitalism incentivizes: grow no matter what, even if it's not sustainable, because while it grows you make money, and when it falls apart it becomes the next guy's problem.

The people who will pay the consequences for this are the airline workers who will likely suffer layoffs even though they had nothing to do with the problem.