Having spent 20+ years on a certain 3 engine, three crew aircraft where manual flying was encouraged I converted to the B757.
All of a sudden the emphasis was placed on using the automatics.. I remember one sim exercise being an ILS onto 14 at Zurich but with the wind 35 knots across the ILS approach was followed by a visual switch to land on 28.
The very junior training captain had us programming the FMC to fly the whole approach down to 500 feet including the visual switch on the autopilot. A total waste of simulator time.
The airline had the warning signs when someone almost stalled in the Bovingdon hold with the autothrottle disengaged. The response was to ban manual throttle, autothrottle had to be engaged at all times!!
Perhaps it all started with two crew, "your third pilot is the autopilot use it at all times" was the order of the day