Worth considering as well is the completely different environment in which we now operate. We now do 5 day weeks of earlies, including long multi-sector days. Good thing we have high levels of automation on modern jets otherwise modern operations would be downright unsafe! Fatigue is a big enough problem as it is without having to hand fly everything just to sooth my unimaginable ego.
As others have commented, it is ridiculous to suggest that flying is "easy". Following a set of flight directors is easy. Flying an automatic approach on to an ILS on a nice day is easy. It is our airmanship, training, knowledge, cognitive thinking ability and risk management that we are paid for. These are skills which are not unique to any particular aircraft type.
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