...........and as automation continues its inevitable path.
Will two people be required in on the flight deck in 20 years ?
Yes, and for two reasons;
1) as you've indicated yourself already, the second person will hardly (if at all) cost the airline any money because they will be 'self-sponsored,' magenta line following, seat warming idiots who will keep quiet because they're sitting on a mountain of debt,
2) it's much easier and more convenient to blame the two patsies sitting in the pointy end, instead of blaming only one pilot + the automation (read: Boeing/Airbus). Even partly blaming the automation will lead to years and years of expensive lawsuits against powerful and big corporations, something that will be easily avoided by blaming the pilots.
Dress these two idiots up as professionally looking clowns (hey, they'll even pay for their own uniform!), throw around some completely false and outdated statements like "safety is our number one priority" and create the image that pilots are overpaid and arrogant, and the dumb public will be even happier to step on board of that aircraft with 2 fatigued pilots in the cockpit and minimum fuel in the tanks.
It's all smoke, mirrors and appearances, and the public is so dumb and brainwashed that they'll believe everything. Heck, a lot of the pilots even believe it themselves as you can see from some of the statements in this thread.
