The net result would be to 'simply' the pilot right out of the flight deck entirely.
I don't think that's going to happen any time soon, although a pilot may become less of a "pilot" nonetheless.
Automation is the way forward unfortunately, especially with safety in mind. Statistically the computers are making considerably less mistakes than the pilots who are human, which is to be expected. Obviously the incident rate will never drop to zero entirely, but I think it would be very difficult to defend the notion that planes would be inherently safer with less automation.
There is still room for improvement in automation for sure,and the unfortunate AF447 will eventually lead to improvements in future airplanes. Hopefully it has shown among other things that you still depend on humans with their common sense to sort things out when the machines throw in the towel. So it's in one's best interest to give them as clear a situation as possible, not throw a bazillion error messages onto their screen. And fill in the gaps in training for the situations that cannot possibly happen.
Going back 20+ years in technology is not the answer.