My airline career started in 1979. We rarely used the autopilot for approaches, just for the boring enroute portion. Automation was optional. A major airline bought us and guess what, nothing changed, automation was optional except for certain category approaches. Now airlines are hiring pilots from pilot mills that can barely fly and teach them how to push the right buttons.
I know this is going to irritate a lot of people here but I wouldn't want to have this kid as my copilot before I retired. I want a solid qualified seasoned FO that knows how to fly. As a brand new 737 captain I got this kid that couldn't copy a clearance, couldn't fly, didn't know 24,000 ft meant FL 240 and our autopilot was broke. It was a charter to Minneapolis from LAS and I was single pilot both ways. A check Airman got him in as a favor to his neighbor and gave him all his training and check out.
Everybody else knew how to handfly and copy a clearance but he didn't. I don't have a lot of patience for pilots who don't bother to learn how to hand fly.