I would like you to imagine this kind of day out and offer your views on the situation particularly with regards to automation, trust in automation, monitoring, ATC.
Automation sometimes doesn’t play perfectly with procedure design and ATC intervention. STARs into KLAX come to mind. Trust, but verify as the old saying goes. I generally choose the method which generates the lowest workload, be it fully automatic, manual or anything in-between.
Monitoring is so important, across all timescales; FMAs all the way to re-routes. As soon as you start to deviate laterally or vertically from plan *anywhere*, it’s essential to project the flight path forward as far as is practicable. It may be of no consequence whatsoever but it is easy to paint yourself into a corner before realising it.
ATC bear a heavy burden when it comes to keeping the flight path of an aircraft safe, but as the guys at the front you have the ultimate responsibility and suffer the consequences of any mishaps in a very personal fashion...