Paying for flight training, thus becoming an airline pilot, is not really a possibility for most young Americans. The situation will only get worse as the years roll by.
This considered, why are you shocked that they don't care about replacing air travel with trains and shit? Plane tickets are pretty expensive, and it's not like they could become a pilot anyway. They have no reason to care at all about aviation. Might as well replace all that shit with something more practical.