And aroa - a yes from me. In addition to excessive box-ticking and arse-covering, I don't see much:
- common sense - I know common sense has always been uncommon, is it getting worse, or is that me getting older...
- general knowledge - very few people come to aviation knowing which end of a spanner to use; or having broken many flying model aircraft
- drive - when you had to pay your own way, and do lots of crap work in crap aircraft, it filtered out the not-really-interested and gave those that did get through plenty of real experience.
- interest - it's a long way between students who bother doing any of their own reading, questioning, thinking. It's easier now, all sorts of stuff around the internet, but seems to be less curiosity, less I-should-know-stuff-because-it-might-be-helpful, and less general I-am-responsible, I-should-be-as-good/knowledgeable-as-possible.