Many lay people have this impression that everything is automatic!
An impression strengthened, no doubt, by some of the scarier posts I see right here on PPrune. Manual flying = ego massage, etc....
As for PJ2's post, above - spot on. The freight trains that rumble by my house every day have a crew of three. In one hundred years they will still have a crew of three. And aircraft will have a crew of two. Why? Same reason people still fly C-130's after 50 years. "Cost effectiveness."