I think the fundamental misunderstanding amongst non-pilots - should I say non airline pilots because I've heard this from PPLs too, is that the main part of the job is physically flying the aeroplane - hence the surprise at the amount we use the automatics and "So what do you do for the rest of the time then?"
Its hard to convince people that flying is only a tiny part of it and the world is so full of armchair experts who know better anyway...
We already have computers that fly aeroplanes, we've had them for well over half a century. What we don't yet have is one to operate an aeroplane in an acceptable manner, and when there are pax on board instead of bombs that's going to be quite a trick. It won't happen in the foreseeable future.