Do pilots actually "fly" an Airbus or do they "programme"?
Bit unfair to poke a stick at airbus only. All modern airliners are automated. Its just that different manufacturers took different roads on the way to automation.
It is interesting to look back on transition from analogue to EFIS cockpit, and interesting to watch other pilots make the transition.
A certain former head of flight operations was heard to remark "A monkey could fly a 717." Where did that leave
him, in evolutionary terms, when he failed his line check?
I think the point that was made before, perhaps a little too pugnaciously, was that a pilot needs to bring to work, all the skills necessary to fly a second-generation airliner like a DC-9 or 737-200, as well as the 717 or 777 with full automation.
Often the transition to EFIS reveals the limitations of those pilots whom have never really thought strategically or tactically about where they are going to put their aeroplane, putting their faith in their stick and rudder skills.
It also invites another kind of professional indiscipline that results in reliance on automation.
The hard part is keeping all the old skills, as well as the new skills, current and sharp, with pretty much the same number sectors in which to practice them!