In terms of 'demons waiting', that is the very definition of aviation: "At every moment, the machine is trying its damndest to kill you." QED.
Now that is hyperbole. You must know I address complacency, and am making a point to wit: a platform that does all the work, deflects all the challenge, and lullabies to an awake inertia is an accident waiting to happen. My money is on that being addressed as well as sleep inertia, perhaps in conjunction with training. I could well be way off the mark, but the Airbus, as designed in 1980, and with all follow on, is not a good fit for today's young at entry pilot. There is a special and untrained format waiting to pounce, demon or no. I say it from the outset, at a time of startle, in stink, and with vital cues missing, the "sophistication" of the "degradations" is counter recovery..... In the seconds it took for PF to lose the plot of his PITCH, and hence his a/s (as a 'complement' to the ADR's desertion), he was deluged with mostly irrelevant pages of ECAM, a ROLL that had his hands baffled, and a PNF who was only half there, insofar as being helpful, rather than reticent, and calling a CAPTAIN who should have been at the helm in the first place.
There is a chasm as wide as all cattle between the Airbus and the pilot, in conditions that demand piloting rather than systems management. The euphemism "graceful degradation" is descriptive of the change in personality demanded by the aircraft from systems manager to Pilot, in emergency conditions, when one is functionally nothing at all like the other. Imho. One may as well have a third and fourth seat, with pilots, who can take over from the "systems guys".
Over-analytical, precious, and inscrutable in the worst of times...A sweetheart and mistress in the good times. As it is a machine, the difference lies in the misunderstandings of the designers, not necessarily the rarely seen and occasionally lethal shortcomings of unsuspecting aircrew.