NEW YORK — Robb Dougherty, a Texas hairstylist, used to be a frequent flyer on the Lubbock to San Antonio route. But he couldn't stand the nasty travelers he constantly encountered — people who felt entitled, who talked down to flight attendants, who raged when they weren't poured a full cup of soda or given an extra pillow.

"Once, it was such a thrilling, exciting adventure to fly," said Dougherty, 41, who now stays close to home in Corpus Christi. "It's become just a nasty experience. People swat you with their bags and don't apologize. No smiles. No nothing."

Dougherty is just one of countless disillusioned travelers who have been venting their frustrations since news broke of the spectacular meltdown of Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who cursed a passenger on the public-address system and then left his plane — and likely his career — behind with one dramatic escape down an emergency slide.

Many, but not all, gripe about nasty fellow passengers. To some, flight attendants are equally to blame for unfriendly skies.

Of course, it's hardly just on airplanes that many see a breakdown in civility.

"It's everywhere," said Courtney Mitchell, 42, of Hollywood, Fla. "No one makes eye contact anymore, and if you say hello, people act like you're going to kill them. Honestly, everyone is just so stressed out."

How did it come to this? Passengers and those in the travel industry cite a number of factors, among them post-Sept. 11, 2001, security concerns, packed planes and budget-tightening leading to those dreaded fees.

Flying, said Pauline Frommer, creator of the Pauline Frommer Guides and daughter of Arthur Frommer, "is a high-stress experience. You're just a number when you fly. It's not like other parts of your life. Any feeling of control you have is gone."

That can lead to severe anxiety, said Katherine Muller, a clinical psychologist at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York, who flies frequently and has suffered her own anxiety on flights at times.

As for flight attendants, Muller points out that they're people, too, subject to nerves, just like us.