Can't find the relevant blog post, but I believe this was known in the SEO community as the "Vince Update."

Heh. That's awesome. As an SEO, I know that we definitely don't see the extreme head as being "SEO free" - but perhaps we have different definitions of SEO. The people ranking there have definitely thought about how to do that (and done it effectively).

They haven't done it with scraped links and content farms, but they have definitely optimised their business to do well in search engines.

This is the sort of query I'm talking about: http://www.google.com/search?q=airline+tickets

Yep. And I know the smart SEOs behind at least 3 of those rankings. There are more big brands, but there are also big brands who are not ranking there - and I would argue that is not coincidence. SEO is evolving, but whatever the algorithm, there are opportunities to take steps to have your business perform better in the search results.

Equally (and while I very much respect the work you guys are doing and trying to do) there are massive head terms where I know how much the top-ranking sites are paying for links. When they stop, they slip. The job is not done. (But you know that).

Keep in mind that just because the SEO is employed there doesn't mean they are responsible for the rankings. :)

In general though, I agree with you, and it will get better.