Gone are the days of immediately reverting to hand flying when the automatics are not behaving as expected, or at least they should be gone.
That belief is what scares the hell out of me. The reason why pilots should be perfectly confident of reverting to hand flying when the automatics are not behaving as expected, is that it is more efficient and far quicker to go Click Click and take immediate control than furiously going heads down poking buttons.
No pilot likes to make a fool of himself in front of the other crew member. And the reason why many pilots espouse staying with automatics through thick and thin is because they know they have become rusty, and thus incapable of hand flying competence. They would never admit it but I suspect they are frightened of losing face in front of the other pilot. Loss of face is not just an Asian trait. It applies equally to all captains and first officers.