Chugalug (your #8086),
I must agree that "blame the pilots" has always been a useful way of deflecting attention from the more fundamental failings of the designers and regulatory authorities, and many recent accidents have underlined that fact. But it will be ever so, human nature being what it is.
What shocked me about the story was the extent to which "pilotage" (as we knew it) seems to have been almost squeezed out of commercial airliner operation. I suppose that I am an old dodo, and the improvement in fatality rates proves that the new ways are better than the old, but even so, something has been lost.
As far as I can see, "Normal Law" means that the Airbus is flying
you: you are no more than a systems manager - and when something does go wrong, you revert to "Alternate Law" and you're presented with the task of actually
flying the aeroplane - but you've long since forgotten how to do it !
Better to leave it at that, as now we really are "off Thread" (but food for thought).
Cheers, Danny.