Sadly the modern generation are not pilots but system managers - there was a thread on here a while ago - probably still here hiding somewhere - where a simmer who used the 767PIC program asked if anyone thought he could land a real 767. From reading what he wrote (some pretty technical on the ball stuff) i was fairly convinced that he 'probably' could - using all the systems - which actually was his question - however i am 100% sure that he could not hand fly that plane in anything other than SLF.
I've been reading this thread, and I keep thinking about a strange parallel between the topic under discussion and the world of desktop flight simulation.
In flight simulation, the objective is to be as realistic as possible in virtually every aspect of flying, and that objective is approached much more closely than I suspect most people here realize. (Unless you are a serious simmer, you probably think that flight simulation at home stops with Flight Simulator or some overpriced, special-purpose desktop sim.) There are, however, some curious differences between simmers and real pilots (even when the simmers also happen to be pilots in real life, which is common enough).
One interesting difference is that simmers usually start their sim aviation careers in airliners, and then "work their way down" to small aircraft. Why? Well, flying an airliner is generally perceived as more glamorous, of course. But another very important reason for this is that airliners are easier to fly, because almost everything is automated.
The newbie simmer chooses a 747-400 as his first airplane in part because he need never touch the flight controls (almost) in order to fly it. All he has to do is pull the yoke back a bit at take-off, and then push a few buttons to let the FMS do the rest. And he can autoland (in the sim universe, autolanding is safe at any airport with a functional ILS), so he need not touch the controls at all after take-off.
Now, the hard reality is that anyone can push buttons and turn knobs, and anyone can learn how to do this from a book. No real-world practice is required, because these actions don't require any special motor skills, coordination, or motor memory. Most people have pushed buttons and turned knobs all their lives, and once they learn which ones to push and turn (which they can do by self-study), they can operate anything that requires only buttons and knobs … and that includes flying a modern airliner.
So the newbie pilot steps into his simulated 747 or A380, loads a flight plan into the FMS, and he's ready to go. He can press buttons and turn knobs and fantasize that he's an airline pilot.
As the serious simmer "graduates" from one level of skill to another, he moves down rather than up. Smaller aircraft don't have a FMS, so he has to learn how to use the autopilot. And he has to learn how to navigate, since an autopilot won't follow his flight profile for him. Lazy simmers rely on a GPS for navigation, though, and thus delay their progression.
As the simmer moves to still smaller aircraft, he loses the GPS, and has to start looking at charts. Then he loses the autopilot, and things get really tough, as now he must finally grab the flight controls and fly the aircraft by hand. Just as in real life, flying by hand takes a lot of practice, and so it may well be the last thing that a simmer learns—the crowning achievement in his sim career.
The net result is that the 747 captains on virtual flight networks are mostly 14-year-old newbies, and the Cessna 152 pilots are mostly 40-year-old veterans of simulation.
All of this reflects the fact that large commercial transport aircraft are increasingly flown by computers, with pilots only as attendants. Not only is it possible to avoid flying by hand, but it's expected, and it's by design. The ultimate goal is to eliminate the pilot, but in the meantime, he can be reduced to an observer on normal flights. It makes good sense for airlines, but it does not bode well for pilots.
The reality is that the only thing that requires practice in a real aircraft (or a full-motion sim) is hand-flying. Like riding a bicycle, it's something that you have to do in order to learn, because of the motor skills and undefinable "feel" that you need to succeed. But all the other aspects of flying do not require this, and they can be learned by rote without going near a real aircraft, and they can be carried out by someone with very little training.
I don't know of any way to reverse the current trend. Airliners are designed for airlines, not pilots. As long as all the systems on board work (and they get more reliable all the time), hand-flying is not required. Right now hand-flying skills are subject to atrophy; eventually, they won't even be required for pilots to begin with, once the systems are considered sufficiently reliable. In the meantime, it's important to have those skills if something goes wrong, but since things hardly ever go wrong, airline accountants don't understand the utility of paying for pilots to maintain those skills beyond whatever air regulations legally require. And pilot unions are often afraid of anything that might challenge a pilot's ability and rock the boat of the status quo.
Which reminds me: Is it harder to hand-fly a 747 than it is to hand-fly a Cessna 182? Or is it just different? Although I guess these days the question might be: Does anyone remember hand-flying a 747?