CRM is very important for a very small number of pilots but less necessary for the majority of pilots.
But, like it or not, CRM is as indispensable to airlines as today's plague of green, high-vis vests - insurance requirements without either of which, the costs of operation would be higher and the corporate image would suffer: "Any airline worth the name supplies staff with green vests. And has a CRM program."
With the exception of the purser, CC don't need training in CRM; they need training in "effective communication" because they may have something to say at an important time (eg. Kegworth as someone pointed out) however they have very little to "manage" - with the exception of the purser. Effective communication is an integral part of CRM however the CC tend to see their small exposure to CRM training as the sum total of the concept; hence a grumpy captain who, despite possessing exemplary information-gathering and decision-making skills, just isn't touchy-feely enough to make them coffee in the galley before boarding "...has bad CRM."
Parabellum, your crusty, old Qantas captains will, inevitably, be a relic of the past; the next generation, MPL or otherwise, will be brought up with CRM embedded in their heads and, given similar aeronautical experience to the Rat driver, will be better decision-makers for it.
Whilst I am often bored by CRM classes and whilst I believe it is an "industry" living off aviation (which is why they keep inventing new generations of it) and whilst deep down I think the lessons of the bad CRM events "don't apply to me...", I know I am a better decision-maker for my exposure to CRM after 20 years since my first lesson in it. I think it helps me recognise undesirable states of flight and cockpit dynamics also.
Some of it is useful.
in the seventy years before .........CRM....... intelligence and airmanship seemed to work.
Most of the time, yes. And as a result of certain occasions when those qualities
weren't enough, CRM was "invented."
It may be of interest that some Fire Departments around the world are embracing
CRM training as a way of enhancing the skills and knowledge already given to their crews and chiefs.