No wonder T&C's are spiraling downward. The skill set and level of competency that I had to demonstrate 20 years ago is being dumbed down, so that an airline pilot can be trained easily and without any need for solid experience.
What is with Cathay? I have seen your SOPS by proxy, and thankfully, many of them have been binned at KA. No raw data flying, no high speed descent, Cat D circling at a 1000 feet ( which you are now getting rid of ) and I get told to put extra fuel on by ACARS.
Even worse than having the job dumbed down, is the above empowers an ordinary operator to huff and puff in the LHS, within the boundaries of some pretty numbing SOPS.
Bring back the well managed high speed descent below the MSA; and a glide slope intercept from above isn't sporty if well handled. And who took away the dive from Sierra? Ask me to do a raw data ILS on a line check. And for licensing renewal, have me demonstrate a 500ft single engine circling approach in the simulator. Don't start me on Visual Approaches. Can't do one it should be bye-bye Charlie.
All of these were core competencies just a few years ago! Now that they are not, will make pilot training simple, cheaper and the abandonment of a need for good experience. Hence pay is not going up.