Anything would be better than life under Gaddafi; or ; from wealthiest African nation to complete basket case, Gaddafi was better than what happened next.
They could have been better off if anyone had actually planned for post-Gaddafi. Instead Obama was happy to support our allies but not on the ground, the French who started the intervention weren't about to get involved on the ground and the Brits wouldn't if the French and US weren't. It was a perfect example of a repeat of Bush '43's naivete but in the guise of Sarkozy. Kill the dictator and then magical democracy will bring flowers and prosperity to the country.

If the French (and ideally the Italians) had been willing to go on the ground as they did in Mali (which was fallout of the flawed Libyan intervention) then perhaps there could have been a better situation. I know their colonial history with Algeria and Tunisia next door would make it extremely unpopular in the Arab world but the French seemed to do a good info campaign for Mali so perhaps they could have done one for Libya too.

Bombing campaigns don't lead to peace unless there's a truly friendly ground element ready to defeat the enemy and impose the system 'we' or the 'freedom fighters' want in the first place. It's the modern equivalent of sending in gunboats to shell a unfriendly port but with far greater negative impacts.