Some great reading and food for thought here. I especially find myself siding with desitter. Aside from the pros and cons of automation I think that EU OPS (JAR OPS) and regulators as a whole have a part to play in the short comings of this accident. Whilst EU OPS has improved the training depts output in low end airlines, their rule-making may have had the opposite effect on the bean-counter led airlines training depts. The bean counters are constantly putting pressure on training dept heads to cut costs and slim down. The, 'we train to proficiency' (no more no less) mentality is now showing the fruits of it's labour. Personally I don't remember any really challenging training scenarios for many years now, actually since 1997. The usual LPC items have been covered and the training day is the usual rushed affair with trainers who have less and less to give, or are allowed to give. Very prescriptive, sterile packages. Very few 'old boys' that put you through the ring with scenarios that are multi dimensional. God forbid that we give our pilots multiple failures, they might fail! That would cost money and that's not an option.
It's time to train hard again, it's time the regulators got real with training, it's time that pilots with 'heavy training files' were given the extra mile, and it's time that PC took a backseat and allowed the truth to be told. A few egos may be bruised but a few lives may be saved.