What I find incredibly interesting in following you guys through this thread, is that the very systems designed to DECREASE your workload appear to INCREASE your workload because FEW of you (largely dependent upon training and experience) trust the damn things...apparently for good reason.
To my mind, it puts the aircrew in the position of always flying with a student pilot; not knowing EXACTLY what he or she is going to do, you're "forced" to follow them through with light hands until you're satisfied. Thus, some of you are ready, willing, and able to intervene because you're essentially flying the plane mentally anyway; and then there are some of you for whom the workload is greatly reduced because you just accept the automation as it is because thats what you're company tells you to do. IOW, it's working until you bend it.
As an aerospace engineer and manager, I'm not sure what is scarier: automated systems that are so complex that no one understands their decision logic; automated systems that may not be completely reliable if modes selected are inappropriate for the flight regime; a cockpit and/or corporate culture that disrupts CRM; or pilots that might not have the skills to land a bloody sailplane without an ILS.
This has been VERY educational, but man, it's a bit frightening to think that I might want to ask the Captain if he or she can shoot a VFR approach when I'm boarding.