Over-reliance on automation which is not fully understood seems to be the case in way too many incidents and accidents.
Has training become the bare minimum these days to minimise the costs as much as possible?
Have airlines created this themselves by prohibiting pilots to manually fly the aircraft and creating a fear culture by punishing mistakes resulting in lack of flying skills and airmanship?
I believe the answer is yes.
From all the companies I have worked for, the one that allowed us to switch off all the automation and where pilots weren’t actually afraid of doing so, had the best pilots and was the safest airline in my opinion.
With all the others, I was never 100% relaxed when flying with them as a passenger, because I knew there were some pilots with sub-standard flying skills and airmanship.
As for Airbus design discussion: I like the AB design, but that’s probably because I’m very familiar with it.
It’s (usually) not the design that kills you, it’s improper usage of it. AB, Boeing, MD, ... They all have their own design with pros and cons. If you are properly trained and you follow the manufacturer’s SOPs, it shouldn’t matter.