The average airline pilot is currently awful.
Yes, they can follow the script, but as soon as things are abnormal, they/we are abysmal.
with a caveat: usually, if they can read, utilise good CRM/MCC, and the non-normal comes directly under a QRH procedure they should be able to cope. It's when they need to use their (often lacking) experience to react (even be proactive) to handle a situation without a simple checklist. That takes brainpower in a variety of ways. Often then the human makes a bad situation worse and a descending spiral is entered way beyond their comprehension.
Automation has been coming into service slowly but surely for decades.
The upshot of this is a huge increase in safety.
I wonder/expect there are more approach/landing accidents that takeoff ones. The former might be more human influenced: bad decision making due to known technical non-normals or bad judgement due weather, or bad execution of an approach procedure. The latter technical first then human reaction make its worse.
In the modern a/c it could be that GPS becomes an absolute standard in all types, even turbo-props. That then brings in that PRNAV STARS to RNAV/ILS approaches is the norm. That could then lead to all normal approaches being autoland, even in the middle of nowhere. Technically it will come possible. How is that going to jive with the FAA stance that pilots should exercise more manual flying to retain the skill set necessary to save the day when HAL goes AWOL?
There will still be a single monitoring pilot onboard, but the role could become so rudimentary that a whole new training regime is required. I still wonder at the difference in applicant characteristics & qualifications for the different companies. The parameters in legacy carrier application forms is from the old days. Most of their pilots are so over-qualified as to be board stiff most of the time; and irritated like heck at the way they are treated. I wonder if the correct stuff is sitting in modern a/c these days, and will be in the future. The modern job is so different from 30 years ago, but the entry requirements for the old school legacy carriers seem to be still from that era. The LoCo's have perhaps gone too much the other way and made ability to pay, with reasonable aptitude, the norm.
Much to contemplate, but who is doing it?