Aluminium shuffler:
...Modern aircraft are not easier to operate than the last generation - automation and FBW modes are getting ever more complex and confusing, especially when they malfunction, and modern airframes are not designed to be hand flown so much, so their handling qualities are worse...
I appreciate your point. It's true that some old school pilots had a very difficult time transitioning to modern aircraft not because the complexity was so increased but because the implementation of systems integration was so different. Old school auto mechanics these days have similar issues. The transition from purely mechanical skills to complex systems operators. But those pilots were overly dependent on their flying skills IMO and the modern generation of electronics junkies may be more suited to operating computerized aircraft. Like teaching granddad to use his iPad.
I remember when the 757s came out and everybody talked about "glass cockpit experience" as if it was another holy grail box needed to be checked on the way to the big leagues. The facts were later discovered that transitioning from "steam gauges" to glass was statistically easier for pilots than the other way around and the inherent mechanical lag of older panels had actually forced pilots to learn better instrument flying skills (old study....don't ask me to look it up plz).
The point I am making is that modern systems management can be trained in the classroom and simulator far more effectively than the skills needed to fly older aircraft. Competence is certainly a mask for inexperience...not a substitute... but we all need to start somewhere.