FireFlyBob
The fact is that oldies that have done lots of flying on older generation types are "hard wired" neurologically for manual flying (they may be a bit rusty but they can confidently hand fly). New pilots do not have those skills to fall back on.
How do you define "oldies"?
Apparently 20'000 hours did not help in this incident:
AirAsia
Captain (53)
Air Force veteran, was very experienced, with around 20,000 flying hours under his belt including 6,000 on AirAsia's A320.
FO (46)
2,000+ hours with the carrier.
AF447
Captain (58)
Experience:
total: 10,988 flying hours, of which 6,258 as Captain
hours on type: 1,747 all as Captain
FO1
total: 6,547 flying hours
on type: 4,479 flying hours
FO2
total: 2,936 flying hours
on type: 807 flying hours
Glider pilot