It all has to do with money. Once upon a time pilots were picked/sacked/bashed/kicked out/selected/graduated in function of real skills as both airlines and the military did'nt need so many of them. Today virtually anyone with enough cash and time available can become an airline pilot
. It is not politically correct to say that a candidate/young pilot is below average. The center of interest of many youngsters I see flying is more on the latest version of their FMS than on correctly decrabbing the jet at roundout or using their thrust levers for their initial purpose: power ! Keeping a correct speed as near as possible to the bug is not essential: we have autothrottles or autothrust, handflying ?? Are you crazy ? we have an autopilot and you are supposed to use it to the maximum extent ! Looking outside the window ? half of young pilots are already blind at the age of 20...Can you blame them ? Surely not: they adapt to the system and the system is happy they're not asking questions
To answer one of the questions of the post: Yes, pilots are becoming airline agents, just the same as ground agents, gate agents....system controlers...but that's an industry desire, not a pilot request if you ask me....
It's a personal constant fight to let not my skills erode with time as less and less opportunities exist to keep them
