Carruthers, many thanks for the information. However, it has left me somewhat confused. I understand many of the points you make, but it is the apparent glee with which you make them that seems rather at odds with your position. For someone in a position of responsibility and dare I say it power over your fellow pilots, in your capacity as a training Captain, you do give the impression of holding the majority of them in contempt. Yet I assume you're not contemptuous of your own abilities.......
Coming back to the original thread, as WWW has said, because of the cost of developing a pilotless aircraft, in the medium future the problem doesn't exist.
However, I do think increasing levels of automation represent a huge threat to the job in terms of sheer boredom. If we do become 100% systems monitors, then I believe the job will attract a different sort of person, and for the rest of us will become intolerable.