Not sure that it is the way they are trained. I have had the opportunity to watch a lot of students over the years in a variety of settings (both aviation and non-aviation) and an overwhelming impression has been that the majority of male students (not so prevalent among females) want to be told what they need to know for the exam/test/assessment, nothing more. In fact they will actively switch off if it is not directly related to why they are there no matter how beneficial it may be otherwise.
I wonder if time is a function of that. The aircraft manufacturers have shortened their courses considerably but reducing the amount of content. The airlines want their candidates out of the training system and being productive. The combination of the two results in ticking the box to get the person out and flying. Whilst I agree that some of it can probably be levelled at some candidates, I do wonder whether the 'system' is actually moving in that direction anyway as the system is the one that wants the tick in the box (in the shortest amount of time possible) so that they can pass the person on to the next phase of training.
As an example, a major airline supposedly reduced the number of simulators conducted during initial endorsement. They went from virtually no one failing initial training to now having about a 30% failure rate. The logic (again, allegedly) was that it was cheaper to give 30% of crew the extra two sims needed to get them up to speed than give 100% of crew those extra two sims. Of course, the 'system' doesn't count the additional stress on those crews, the lack of confidence by someone who scraped through in the bare minimum, etc, etc.
Anyway, an interesting read. Thanks Centaurus.