Getting back to the question of scale - having built 1/700 airplanes for a 1/720 carrier (the Big E as she appeared in 2007), I can honestly say at that size you can't tell any difference. Unless you use a micrometer. The planes look right - and that's the main thing that counts.
As far as the actual kits go, look for the Fujimi Sea Way Model set No. 36, that gets you 12 F/A-18C Hornets, 4 SH-60 helicopters and 7 F-14 Tomcats, molded in clear plastic. You also get a couple of deck tractors;
You can get F/A-18C Hornets, F/A-18E or F Super Hornets, E-2C Hawkeyes, C-2 Greyhounds, EA-6B Prowlers, and SH-60F / HH-60H helicopters from Trumpeter, all molded in clear plastic and 8 to a box.
If you want to give your Hawkeyes the new 8-bladed props, my solution was to get 2 sets of White Ensign Model's fixed wing aircraft parts PE-715 and glue two sets of four-bladed props on each engine. I also used White Ensign PE-7062 to get more SH-60 rotors. They have modern aircraft and helos as well but with the current lousy exchange rate that option is rather pricy. Everything turned out OK for me, here's a shot of the final result: