Meanwhile, people keep stuffing it up big time.
Kharmael said
1) Learn how to fly an aeroplane and become qualified on type.
but he/she is probably well aware that doing so is only half the story. Becoming, and staying proficient takes time and training and practice. If the airline you are with makes it difficult to keep current on line then you will lose your skills pretty rapidly.
The head banging, and the fact that more than half of the posts in reply to the OP don't offer anything constructive is a shame.
Twenty years ago pilots were generally better at flying visual approaches than they are now. Why? They were not finer examples of the Human species, they were just the same animal as the 22 year old cadet sitting next to you, it's just they have been brought through a different system. A system allowed into existence by the 60/70/80 year olds who like to roar on about how skilled pilots were in their day. It's up to the current management generation ( Chief Pilots/ Training Captains/ Checking Captains/ Line Captains/ CEO's/) to recognise this and start turning it around with half descent training for the younger folk coming through. A good start would be to allow pilots half an hour every six months in the sim to hand fly raw data visual approach's in a training environment.
Those of us who are proficient in the 'old school' ways are a product of the environment we were lucky enough to operate in. I have flown with guys who have come through the whole system and are on line and are anxious about disconnecting automatics while straight and level in VMC. That is a system failure, what are we doing to change the system?