You have it nailed, BOAC.
I have a hard time blaming the crew for 100% of the problem when I see the current training regimen and emphasis upon HAL to "protect" you and the 200 SLF's you are responsible for getting home.
The reversion sequence of the 'bus and its loss of "protections" all along the way disturbs me to this day. Seems the crews are thinking "Normal", and have been "trained" thru hundreds of hours in "Normal" law and "normal" flight conditions. Then when things go Tango Uniform, we see confusion and poor cockpit resource management and..... Also remember that some of us here didn't have the CRM problem, nor could we take a nap someplace aft and hit the bathroom or...
I also have a problem with the warnings and chimes and criteria for them in the 'bus. Many of the flight control functions revert to back-up modes according to loss of speed or whatever. Where should the pilot hang his hat? What's working? And let's forget all the "protections", shall we. I do not advocate a reversion to "direct" law unless there are multiple catastrophic failures of sensors or mechanical systems. It would seem to this old, dumb pilot that we use whatever the jet and/or HAL can give us with clearly defined limits that can be understood by the pilots. For example, who gives a rat's about bank angle limits once outta "Normal" law? Why have two max roll rate limits once reverting from "Normal" to ALT1 and then ALT2 and then "unusual attitude" and then..... Get my point?
Guess/hope the whole affair will result in better crew training, but I would still like to see at least a few concessions by the 'bus folks concerning the reversion sequences, warnings, etc.