It seems overseas pilots also share concerns about degradation of manual flying skills. This letter to Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine February 1, 2010.
"Since the advent of automated aircraft, airlines have enforced policies that require pilots to fly almost completely on autopilot. Those policies have severely reduced or eliminated opportunities for pilots to develop and maintain basic instrument flying and hand-flying skills that can enable them to fly safely under all conditions. We now have an industry populated with pilots who cannot effectively fly without the autopilot, even when conditions require it to be disengaged.
Hand-flying instrument skills require practice, without which it is unlikely that the pilot will be able to fly safely. Qualification on automated aircraft does not provide enough training time to both learn the automation and hand-fly the aircraft. It should not be one or the other, it should be both".
CASA, Qantas, Jetstar, Rex and Virgin Blue and their associates should ponder that good advice...