While I agree with some of the point raised in this article, I also have to disagree with some of the point raised by blueplume.
As we do a fair amount of heavy crew ops I have the oppertunity to look at other guys flying the machine. We do have a lot of F/O's who want to do some manual flying (raw data, manual thrust) but this is very often opposed by the captain. And we are talking about nice days with not to much traffic around and manual flying from just before being put on a intercept course for the localiser. Or even worse going into a field with nobody around an CAVOK.
So it is very easy to say that the new generation of pilots lacks basic flying and can only fly the machine through the autopilot. Part of the problem are also the skippers who don't let them fly a manual raw data approach. And the reason given is normally that the aircraft manufacturer has not installed all this shiny equipment for no reason and that it should be used.
Company policy is that we can more or less do as we want as long as it has been briefed and doesn't overload the PNF. Which seems fair to me.