BugSmasher1960 and Rat
I somehow get the feeling that both of you are not in touch with contemporary situation in aviation otherwise you would not be lamenting the demise of the thinking pilot. Rather the whole process of thinking is now well organised. When something happens you don't sit on your hands because somebody said so but Fly(establish control of the flight path or ensure it is still there), navigate(make sure you are going where you want to or make short term decision to hold or change direction) and communicate immediately if deviating from clearance, if not then when convenient. Dealing with abnormal/emergencies every important item like throttle, fuel lever is confirmed by both pilots before acting on it. Once you are finished with it a situational assessment is made like seeing the problem in its entirety, options, risks and benefits of each of them and decision taken in agreement with the other and as you execute the decision it is periodically checked that it still remains the right one. This is not the demise of the thinking pilot but even a dumb pilot is guided to think along a well thought out plans rather than leaving it to random individual brilliance or idiocy to come out with consistent results. Thinking is not dead but rather the pilot is prevented from acting without thinking like in the old days. it doesn't leave much to be unnecessarily creative unless you want to show that you are different.