vilas
That pilots worldwide think automation flies the plane for you. All it does is free up your hands a little and give you back a little brain processing power. But you are still responsible for ensuring the correct flightpath no matter the degree of automation currently engaged, and I will add that that is so for any phase of flight. People are way too relaxed on automatics and way too stressed hand flying. This is why we have so many "this can't be happening to me" moments, so many losses of control, so many crews suddenly dumped into hand flying at the worst possible moment.
I don't think standards and training will ever be where they need to be, so it is only through individual effort that one can achieve excellence or at least build confidence on one's ship. Yes, automation has gotten better, yes it has improved safety, but we must get better as well. There are no excuses. As Smilin_Ed said, any passenger would be most uncomfortable hearing that their crew is uncomfortable flying manually.