I worked at a large US airline training school in the mid-90's, with a host of very experienced dudes, including ex-USN, USAF and RAF pilots, a DC-10 test pilot, retired airline training captains, etc. I can assure you we all saw the likes of AF447 coming a mile off, but nobody in authority wanted to hear it. The aim became solely that a pilot could reproduce the required actions at the required tests, instead of being able to reproduce them airborne when necessary when things got tricky, which is what the tests were supposed to test.
Then they cut the test requirements too.
Then they just prayed the systems wouldn't fail except in ways that fitted standard drills.
Then they just prayed the systems wouldn't fail at all.