virginexcess, I am genuinely saddened by your comments.
I was in an airline (Ansett) and I have to say (after reading this thread) they had a very liberal attitude towards such things; they trained you the best they knew how (and my training/check Captains were simply outstanding), and sent you out to do the job how you saw fit (within reason) – particularly the case for WA, I am told.
The majority of pilots would disconnect the autopilot and turn off the flight director when cleared for a visual approach. A few of the pilots flew raw data departures. Almost all "looked through" the flight director while hand-flying (SIDs etc) and waited for it to catch-up to the current situation rather than follow it blindly. I recall one Captain entering the circuit at Cairns on a visual approach, quite safely hand-flying (and giggling) on a circuit while downwind at 320 KIAS on a "maintain best-speed" approach.
Power and attitude for various manoeuvres was talked about during training and we were expected to know them.
The lowest time pilots were around the 5000 hour mark and the more experienced were 10,000-15000 +.
These days I regularly hand-fly a circuit with no FD after a 15 hour duty and it's a piece of cake. I am in despair about some of the comments on this thread and how the industry is developing.
It seems to me that the airlines are being overrun by a bunch of blouses that have no feel for what it takes to grab a plane by the gonads and put it where it needs to be. The bells and whistles attached to a basic set of wings and engines is great progress, but it should not be turning the pilots into a bunch of eunuchs too scared to fly without them.