With respect to the 60% failure rate....
I did CAP last summer (04), and I know people who were on both the fall '04 serial and the winter '05 serial. A couple of guys I know got unlucky injuries in the fall, and so experienced both the fall and winter serial (there were wholesale changes to the course for Winter '05).
From talking to these individuals, CAP has gotten somewhat easier, not harder. Apparently on the winter serial, there wasn't a night where they didn't get at least 3 hours of sleep. This is a far cry from what I experienced last summer (although it paled in comparison to phase 3), and what those who I know experienced in the fall. Yes, I realize I sound like one of "those guys" who always thinks he had it harder, but like I said, I am basing this on what I have heard from actual people I know who did these serials.
I don't see it as an issue of the course getting harder, but of the quality of some (not all) of the candidates getting lower. We are attracting the wrong type of people in too many cases, using the wrong type of advertising/incentive to get people to join. I have been saying this for a long time. What do you expect to get, when you portray the CF as a smiley, happy place where you get to play on computers (reference most of the ads you see on TV)? Or offer $40,000 signing bonuses for certain trades? This attracts a certain type of individual, who is given a false image of what life in the CF (especially the Army) is like. They are not joining because they have a fire in their belly, they are joining for (a) the cash and (b) a false image.
When do we start appealing to those who want to join an organization that has a tough, rugged, 'elite' image? Where are the images of soldiers slogging in the mud? Dirty, tired, cold? Screaming as they roll over an objective either dismounted or in LAVs? Where are the weapons in all these ads? I hate to say it, but you watch US recruiting ads, and it gets your heart pounding. We are missing out on those young people who want to join a 'rough and tumble', 'hardcore' (sorry for the terms) organization, but they are presented with a soft and fuzzy image that turns them off. Instead we get what we get, and end up with 60% failure rates on CAP.
Just my two cents....take it for what it's worth.