Aft mounted engines
I will leave other much better qualified people to comment about thrust-lines etc; however one factor which I thought had contributed to the demise of aft engines was the detrimental effect they had on the pilot in the event of a severe landing !
I was told Hawkers' later products were stressed to 27G in case of such an event, though maybe this is not possible or indeed required nowadays, as it seems more the trend to get out, even if a Test Pilot, than try to bring the evidence back, and leave it to telemetry & recorders.
As for Service Pilots, I think they go for the handle rather than the tremendous risks in force landing modern aircraft, even without a big heavy engine & fuel system etc behind them, except for Harriers...