There is a well documented and well studied matter called Taylorism, named after the person who first studied it. It is sometimes called Fordism after Henry Ford who first applied it on any large scale. It is the process of de-skilling jobs by the application of industrial processes or technology. It started in manufacturing and is now well entrenched in many industries. It is certainly deeply engrained now in aviation. It is also engrained in almost every other field of transport. A good example is on the railways where in the 1930's the job of Express train driver, and fireman, were highly sought after and were the ambition of vast numbers of people. They were highly paid and the jobs were highly skilled. Driving a train from London to Edinburgh noe is certainly a highly responsible job but it carries only a fragment of the skill that applied 70 years ago.
The role of the airline pilot is already well down the same path. For proof just ask any Concorde pilot who has converted to the 777. The job still has exactly the same responsibilities but many of the skills have been automated. EFIS, GPWS and FADEC are just three examples of that.
The job content of the role of pilot has cahnged dramatically in my time in aviation and it had followed exactly the predictable path of Taylorism. New technolgies are already out there that will speed it all up just as they have in numerous other industries. Fifty years ago no onewould have accepted driverless trains, but they now exist on large scale. It is now imposible to do anything about the deskilling.
The issue of satisfaction levels that result from that deskilling is a different issue and I detect a strong current od opinion in this topic that that is the real issue. Pilots who come into the industry now have very different motivations from those who joined 30 years ago. They do not see the status issue in the same way at all. They were after all educated in a society in which Taylorism is the norm. There are so many applicants for pilot jobs that you have to conclude that the people concerned are happy with what is being offered.
The third issue is that of pay. Taylorism also means that there is less pay cost. That is why the deskilling takes place.
It is obvious that the job of the pilot is very different from what it used to be. But you cannot reverse that process.
Finally it is worth remembering who pays the pilot. It is not the airline. It is the customer. They are voting with their wallets now very much in favour of a new order.