This has been an interesting thread so far and has raised a few thoughts as I tried to grasp the general direction. I am looking at this from my point of view which is commercial license but no job, and currently working in marketing of electronic components.
1. Flying is not what it used to be - Amen
2. Management is in it for the money - Amen, but so are most humans whatever their line of work. Humans are greedy. My management doesn't give a rats ass if I think the salary is low, they'll hire someone else thank you very much...
3. Pilots want to keep on flying and don't want to lose their jobs -go figure. It can't be all bad.
4. Piloting still requires skills what with all the automation. In fact, the electronics add another twist to the game. Electronics, and mechanics, fail just like humans - it's not a perfect world.
I don't believe in non-pilot aircraft mainly because nobody would fly in them. Most pax are terrified WITH pilots up front but NOT BECAUSE of them. Remove the Pilots and you remove what little faith our fellow human beings have in arriving safely at the other terminal.
5. Humans resist change, always have, always will.
6. Life goes on, and so will flying.
7. The only constant in life is change.
What Pilots do is black magic to most of the general public. There are one or two who think pilots are overpaid just because they fly on autopilot all the time. These are the ones who know there is an autopilot but have no clue as to what, how, when and where they operate, fail and cause problems.
Well, as has been pointed out, pilots aren't paid for riding along with George, it's when he takes a rest and everything goes dark that they earn their pay. If it happens only once in a lifetime, great! - congratulations!
If management neglects to realise this they will be in for a surprise the day they try to remove the guys up front.
I've heard this argument from pilots, that we'll all be replaced by automation. That is a dream of yesteryear and perhaps a very very very distant future, not due to technology but psychology.
The General Public is the current problem and future savior for pilothood. Sure, they, we, I, want cheap airfares. I also demand the guys up front are on their toes. I believe they are trained professionals and place my life in their capable hands. Pilots are entrusted with peoples lives, not by management but by them, the self-loading cargo as someone said (Nice one, perhaps a change of attitude would help?). Because the General Public doesn't have indepth knowledge of what flying is and what makes it tick in a safe manner, we can provide that for them and justify the required level of pay.
If you don't believe this listen to an aviation report on the news. 90% is backwards and incorrect. Journalists aren't more stupid than the general public, they ARE the general public. That's how little they really know about this. That's how they can demand a 19£ airfare from London to Paris, it sounds reasonable to them. Crappy management drives the prices down even further. When will airlines pay customers to fly?
Bring on the terrified public to battle for reasonable T&C. That's the only real live threat for management!