My initial guess would be that the crews you refer to (and I don't know which airline you are alluding to ...) are probably of the 'process and procedure' mindset i.e. they can cope with the book learning of rules, regulations, SOPs, and suchlike. However, they are not good with common sense, instinct, situational awareness, bigger picture stuff.
Additionally, if things are running on rails, these crews will probably cope okay, but if events move towards the 'edge of the envelope', they begin to dissemble, likely becoming stunned and surprised by what is happening. In the panic, with no time to 'look it up on Google', they will continue to push buttons in the hope that whatever has surprised them will go away. They are, unfortunately, utterly reliant on technology to do their thinking. Furthermore, deeply ingrained ideas of avoiding embarrassment, combined with face-saving ways of pushing the blame onto someone, or something, else means lessons are not identified and learned.
Does that help?