This is indeed an interesting subject. The need for more automation is purely due development of airframes & systems to make them more safe.As we all know an A/P can do the job far better than us mere mortals hence the word 'safety' becomes the prime reason for such a high level of automation.
Bit like adding up numbers on a piece of paper.That's all we could do once upon a time then the calculator was invented (not taking into account the abacus used by the Chinese centuries ago) & now a lot of the younger set would struggle to use their minds to add up etc. Are these bad things? Of course not we got away from old fabric bi-planes 'cause the technology changed to be safer & more efficient (they where too slow bit like adding up on paper) but like most things in life where we 'run away' with an idea it does tend to bite us in the ass latter down the track, we are seeing this now in the thread subject heading here.
The answer? It's a balance, a balance between safety & cost, the two demons that fight each other everyday out there in the world of aviation.
More to come am sure
Wmk2