I remember when I went to fly for Air Europe after 33 years in the RAF, flying in the F100 was FUN. It was competitive to see who could get LGW to CDG fastest entirely hand flying. When that paled it was raw data. Unfortunately we didn't have limited panel! I hasten to add that it was in suitable weather (and you could get the CDG ATIS on the ground at LGW). Management asked us to tone it down as the CS were having too little time to dish out the goodies. In my final airline stint on the A320, non auto flying was still quite prevalent as we were often going into little Greek island fields that had no significant aids, and hand flying was often the most economic way (and easiest) of doing it. Of course we still used the AP most of the time but we all took pride in our skills. Why have things changed so dramatically in such a relatively short time ?