Hongkongfooey,
If you're referring to the Air France A320 crashing into the forest, then I'm afraid that your reference to Airbus test pilot is incorrect; it was crewed by two Air France Captains, one a training captain, the other a senior one of some sort.
Since the first three accidents; the one you referred to, the Air Inter and Indian Airlines ones, there hasn't been an Airbus FBW crash due to mode confusion.
Just off the top of my head, the other ones have been; driven off the runway in thunderstorm (at least twice), driven in TOGA into the sea (at least twice), loss of control due to reasons as yet unknown.
And to cut the pilots in the first three some slack, Airbus changed the modes as a result of two of the accidents. The accidents also occurred when the aircraft (and, more importantly, the quantum jump in technology) were quite new, and so the pilot fraternity had not had a chance to become fully conversant with it's idiosyncrasies.
The Airbus FBW range of aircraft is designed primarily to be flown with the A/P connected. But it provides the pilots with a more user-friendly manual flight system should they be inclined to do so. It effectively makes it less important for pilots to practise their manipulation skills - in the Airbus FBW types there is no manipulation expertise required; simply point and release.
Conventional aircraft, with all their quaint trimming requirements, by design have to have pilots willing to practise the art of flying them manually.
In the recent past there have been more than a few Boeing types stalled because no-one thought to push the power levers up! And this in an aircraft that has perpetually moving power levers...
My theory is this; we only wind up in the sim every six months. I think this is where we need to look at to see where the degradation in the competency of pilots stems from. I think that with the ever-increasing use of automation (as opposed to reliance) we have to get into the sim more often. Bring back the three-monthly sim routine! No, I didn't like it either, but I believe I felt more confident in that regime than I do under the six-monthly one.
Safe flying to all.