Bjorn,
We'll have to disagree.
For me, 'pilot error' is a means of apportioning blame across the divide of human frailty. The phrase is judge, jury, and executioner.
The public like to hear about 'pilot error' because they like someone to be 'to blame', the manufacturers love it because their aircraft are not 'to blame', even when many errors are designed-in or not designed-out when they could have been.
Taking your assertion at face value, why do we not have any similar terms for other professionals' errors?
I'm not saying 'pilot errors won't go away'; I'm saying that nothing is gained, and so much lost, by giving straightforward human error the magic 'pilot' qualifier.
today, I think it is quite obvious that when someone with an aviation safety interest say "pilot error", they mean "human error commited by a pilot".
...to a non-aviation professional, this means that the pilot was to blame and should be punished.
Bookworm, you're right, but it's in such common use as to be unstoppable. You'd also be right to criticise those who, as they disconnect the autobrakes, call "manual braking" - it should, of course, be "pedal braking"! (Some aircraft, like the lovely Dove, do have manual brakes, but no autobrakes, so the problem doesn't arise!)