I don't know about automation for its own sake, but I was amazed when I learned that the airlines were using autothrottles (in whichever form you wish to call it) to manage power during cruise, which ought to be the least demanding area of flight. Do you really want to give a crew so little to do that they have resort to reading books to stay awake? Whatever happened to setting XX pounds/hour per engine fuel flow or YY EPR and then backing it off as required to hold your cruise mach. Do you really save that much fuel?
When you leave the crew so far out of the loop in the actual flying of the aircraft, can you really blame them if they have trouble coming up to speed in an emergency?
OK, yes, I'm a dinosaur. I sometimes used autothrottles (technically an approach power compensator) to manage engine power while flying my swept wing bird aboard ship at night when you can use all the help you can get. But using it in cruise??
