Like many industries, pilot selection standards vary according to supply and demand. Two years ago it was easy to get an airline job. Depending on where the cycle was 15 years ago, it may not have been so easy. Right now it's almost impossible to get a job here in Australia because there ARE no jobs.
Respondents here are not ducking the question. Plenty have admitted that individual standards among pilots vary as in any other trade or profession. Some agree that low cost carriers don't spend as much money on training. Some agree that old mates may bypass the usual screening process. The old boy network has flourished since airlines were invented; so it is not confined to the LCCs.
Do jet pilots have the stick and rudder skills that they had 25 years ago? Probably not. In fact from what I have seen in recent years - both in the air and in the simulator - with a few exceptions, definitely not. But instrument flying utilising all the latest gizmos? Today, almost certainly most are better. Weather appreciation? Today's pilots may not be too hot with a synoptic decode and may not be able to visualise the wind without the FMS, but they seem to be a lot more wary of thunderstorms than the old crusties were. Education has done it. A good thing, yes?
So....are pilots, on average, any better or worse than they were 15 or 25 or 50 years ago? How do you quantify that? Bums moved per fatals? On that basis alone, one would have to say that they are way better today. But how much of the improved safety is because of advances in technology? How much due to better education in threat and error management and safety systems?
So, whatever it is you are fishing for, you won't get a definitive answer here. I do not know of any scientific study of pilot standards that will give you the answer either.