Gretchenfarge
No, it's not new, agree. But it has not been tackeled, at least not effectively, only by lengthy and a$$ covering bulletins.
A few of us had a discussion along similar lines in the Safety Forum about a year ago. However, those threads seemed to have disappeared into cyberspace due to inactivity.
The whole purpose of the FD, autopilot, etc is to releave the burden on the pilot by allowing the computer to do those tasks. You take the software away and the industry will quickly find itself back in the days of a four crew flight deck.
On the other hand, byzantine failures can never be entirely eliminated. Sooner or later a flight crew is going to be surprised. As you note, manual flying may or may not be of any help because by the time it gets kicked back to the pilot it may already be too late.
My own opinion is that what the industry needs is not a new set of facts but a new perspective. Sometimes, in rare instances,
no one is to blame. Everybody did their jobs as well as could be expected and it really was just an accident. The insurance industry likes to call these "acts of God".
In other words, I don't think there is an effective way to address the problem. It just doesn't exist. Recognizing that might be cold comfort to the pilots and passengers whose bad luck it was to be on such an ill-fated flight, but at least it would cut down of the A$$ covering and lengthy bulletins.