I'm currently sitting in a greyhound bus staring at the Midwest pass me by. I was considering differences between different means of travel. The jobs of airline pilots (and flight attendants) seem to be perceived as a relatively high status job in popular media (especially in media depicting "the golden age of air travel").

Were bus drivers, who do a very similar job, ever considered this way? If so, why did it change? Did the advent of cheap air travel lower the perceived status of these jobs? Or was it never glamorous in the same way? (Maybe it harkened too much to carriage drivers?)

If not then why is there this difference in perception of these similar careers? Are there historical reasons airline pilots ended up "on top"?