DC-ATE
One of the problems with this "progress" is that the only ones benefiting from it are the manufacturers. ... Whereas you could pull up to the gate in a DC-3 and people would still get on. FBW has its place, no doubt. But it was NEEDED to control high performance aircraft, not airliners.
The DC-3 was a great plane in its day, if we were all using it today we would be doing 130kn at FL24, and taking the China Clipper overseas. Not sure if that would "fly" with the public today.
Give it some time and airline pilots may end up working from home, as today's Predator and Global Hawk pilots are getting closer to doing now.
In terms of AF447, I suspect there will be an old bug (like pitot icing), a current bug (like how the flight controls handle multiple lost inputs), some human error or confusion (information overload), an act of god (the storm), and quite possibly something that none of us have even imagined yet. There could even be a spilled cup of coffee involved.
The key is that we learn the most we can from this very expensive lesson, and I am not talking dollars.