This is the dilemma, is not it? Many lay people have this impression that everything is automatic! Great surprise is often expressed when I inform such people that 99% of landings are manual!
NASA established a long while ago that human beings are poor monitors of automation - if anything the automation should be monitoring the humans!
In my opinion we are decades away from fully automated flight with no pilots.
After arduous sectors (one comes to mind in the last year dodging all the CBs on the way inbound to a German airport) I often remark "And they think it's all automatic!"