>>>Oh how I yearn for the glory days of aviation when people were born with experience.<<<
I yearn for the days when experience was valued.
The problem with a certain number of low time pilots in the United States is not that they are low time, but that they don’t value experience. This seems to be the result of being told during their training in the pilot puppy mills that “good training” is more important than experience. Then, when they start to fly for a living, they are paired with Captains with only a couple of years in the real world.
Compare this to a European ab-initio program where the new FO clearly understands that he has a lot to learn, is expected to work diligently at learning it, and is paired with well seasoned Captains. Same with the United States in the late 60’s when low time pilots were being hired.
What we have in the United States is a profit based training system that tries to increase its perceived value by denigrating the importance of experience. This attitude then flows into their trainees and airline management.