We now have pilots who are **** scared to fly.
"You're free to disconnect and I'll handle the settings..."
"No thanks" was the response almost 100% of the time from my F/O's. I gave up encouraging and teaching how to disconnect even the autothrust because it wasn't supported by airline policy and no one wanted to do it. To me that was letting down one's professional standards but who could blame them? If an incident occurred when someone was handflying, the rules for disconnecting got tighter and, to me, judgement as to when one could/should disconnect got worse because it was driven by policy and not by ones personal awareness and maintenance of competency. That was purely about money, nothing else; simulator and instructor time costs and usually the script was so full (for a 3:30hr sim session) that no time was spent "just flying". I know a major carrier who would not teach their A320 pilots non-precision managed approaches 'because it was too expensive'.
The stated goal for me in line indoctrination was, if you could get from fully-automatic flight to fully manual and back to fully automatic flight again during any maneuver in any flight phase without anyone in the back noticing, you knew the airplane and the automation.
That's what competency on an Airbus means and should mean on any automated airliner. The master/slave relationship has been twisted by the financial people who think that handflying costs fuel but they never asked the FOQA people if their opinion was true. Anyway, now retired and WTFDIK?