We elaborate on a recently proposed model for subsonic quasi-spherical accretion onto slowly rotating pulsars, in which accretion is mediated through a hot quasi-static shell above the neutron star magnetosphere. We show that under the same external conditions, two regimes of subsonic accretion are possible, depending on if plasma cooling in the transition zone is dominated by Compton or radiative processes. We suggest that a transition from the higher luminosity Compton cooling regime to the lower luminosity radiative cooling regime can be responsible for the onset of the `off-states repeatedly observed in several low luminosity slowly accreting pulsars, such as Vela X-1, GX 301-2 and 4U 1907+09. We further suggest that the triggering of the transition may be due to a switch in the X-ray beam pattern in response to a change in the optical depth in the accretion column with changing luminosity.
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