Airbus FBW has made it almost impossible to kill the aircraft or engines and Boeing aren't far behind. Cirrus have with their ballistic thingummy have made it almost impossible to get killed,]
Gaunty, with the greatest of respect, your pathetic faith in technology, while touching, is totally and absolutely misplaced.
There is a phenomenon that goes on in the Human race (of which Pilots, I think are a sub species, but the jury is still out on that one) called "Risk Shifting".
Now risk shifting behaviour is not yet well understood scientifically - like, but we know it occurs, because the introduction of new fangled anti-lock (ABS) brakes in cars has NOT reduced the frequency of nose to tail crashes.
What appears to be happening is that drivers have compensated for the technology by driving closer to other cars, with obvious results. In other words they have compensated so that they judge their overall risk level to remain the same.
There is apparently evidence, in what I understand to be an appalling Cirrus accident rate, that fatheaded pilots are doing the same, like the guy who headed up the East River in NYC, in marginal weather, secure in the knowledge that he could "pull the handle on the roof" if things got too tough, and hit an apartment block while trying to reverse course.
So don't be too sure that things are safer now than they were back then, because the technology - GPS, Ballistic thingummies and suchlike have made it possible for the more intellectually challenged to have a go at flying. I am living proof of this, although while I slaver every time someone tries to entice me into a Cirrus endorsement, I'm so lazy I'm put off by the sheer bulk of the POH.
As for Chimbu's treatise on engines, power levels and suchlike, I am eternally grateful because when doing my Constant Speed and Retractable, no one ever mentioned checking MAP prior to start, after start, let alone checking MP AND Fuel Flow in addition to RPM while hopefully howling down the runway.
Furthermore nobody has ever picked me up on this, and I fly from a good skule, with great instructors and next month I'm flying to a short field where undetected lack of full power is going to be terminal.