Does automation induce fatigue.
Can there be any doubt that increasingly more and more functions that would otherwise have been carried out by humans are allocated to machines. Aviation is no exception to this. In fact it is fast becoming one of the top in rankings for automation dependency.
Yes we do know and accept that lack of rest, adequate sleep, build up of sleep debt leads to fatigue. But I would submit, so does inactivity which causes lethargy, boredom and impairs alertness and attentiveness.
Here is a quote : " Hard work never killed a man. Men die of boredom, psychological conflict, and disease. They do not die of hard work". David Ogilvy said it. He had worked in the kitchens of a famous hotel in Paris and was a super door to door salesman selling the sort of posh cookers ( that are now so vogue as pride of place exhibits in pseudo farm cottages) to nuns, drunks and all manner of folk in between.
So maybe too much yawning, belly aching, moaning and whinging may bring forward the day of the one pilot-system monitor before he/she is also replaced with a super duper, all singing dancing computer, with artificial intelligence to boot. Whatever that may be.