We don't fail in almost all situations when the automatics fail. We actually succeed in almost all of those situations. We hear about, read about, or have the accidents when guys screw up the automation and DON'T revert to basic flying skills. And then we're left with a situation that is commented on in many of these posts "WTF were they doing?!?"
A large US airline probably has several G/A's every day. Some at 1,500', some at 1,000' and some below 20'. We usually don't hear about them unless there's a screwup, which is often the triggering event for the g/a and the g/a itself is a non-event.