@fireflybob
Dumbing down pilots is the result of a fashion in all technology nowadays which is about "idiot proofing" everything according to dreams of marketeers and not engineers.
I am not a pilot but I am an engineer and I have spent good part of my life opposing this concept. It's not about automatics or no automatics but about who designs it. The true goals of automation are rarely simplicity and sense and more often stupidity of short-sighted profit. Meaning it is mostly designed by idiot marketeers and not engineers.
To adapt a joke about the issue:
Marketeer: This plane is by far our most pilot-friendly. It has only one button and we push it for you at the factory.
This is all industry-wide problem. In automotive industry, for example, they specifically designed all car automatics in a way that only the dealer can service even the simplest problem. The goal is profit not safety or sense.