Better safety systems and procedures do not nullify the risks inherent in aviation. Those dangers are omnipresent and some cannot be cancelled out by technology, as any pilot will know.
Meanwhile, a large increase in cheap short haul aviation over the last twenty years has exposed an increaing proportion of the general public to flying. Perhaps this exposure experienced in a relatively safe environment has devalued pilot skills in the eyes of this new generation of passengers.
Why? Well, people regularly associate quality with price, ergo in a low fare environment of mass air travel there will be a perception that cheap, safe flying must be easy. If it's easy, it doesn't merit decent financial reward for pilots. And because the only downside from a passenger's point of view is the low risk of an accident, if FTL changes don't immediately lead to a spate of crashes, who cares?