Handflying skills are still required in an airline environment
But not by airlines or regulating agencies.
airline flying is slowly being lowered to the lowest common denominator
...of necessity. With ever more cockpit seats needing to be filled, the skills of the average pilot are bound to decrease. Modern airliners are chock full of automation and safety features and company sop's are rigid and sometimes inane precisely so that even the 21year old, 250 hour non-wonder employed by save-a-penny airline can move the jet from A to B in a reasonably safe way - most of the time.
Back in '96-'97 UAL had a human resources department that preferred to hire low-time "nobodies" rather than the literally thousands of highly experienced and qualified pilots available then, as they felt that the young uns could be molded to fit the company profile better.
Unfortunately the game is still played that way in much of Europe and the rest of the world.