When I made the switch from military to commercial aviation, I was doing sim training and the sim instructor kept telling me to "follow the command bars". I responded "those are SUGGESTION bars, I'll do the commanding thank you"
That is outstanding.
Centaurus: excellent writing. I too lament the degradation in basic skills and in despair of some of the things I hear about the new breed.
In the RAAF, power/attitude/trim was the mantra that lead to graduation. Even at Ansett we were expected to know the power and attitude for a few basic manoeuvres.