I'm sorry to be harsh. I've been flying bit airplanes for over 30 years, as well as investigating accidents. I have participated in evaluating aircraft performance, human performance, operations and numerous other factors. I have been a check airman and instructor on several types of large transport airplanes, worked in both management and in ALPA positions. I have spent the past 20 years also working on handling quality issues and researching based on the most recent understandings of human factors, including control feedback theory and cognitive factors.
I used to be like many of the respondents in this thread. I have learned better. We are all too quick to blame our fellow pilots as being weak. We also, in conjunction, believe that humans are the "weak point" in aviation safety, and also like to tell laypeople that "flying is easy". Then we are shocked when people tell us we're overpaid and not necessary.
The evidence, on the contrary, is overwhelming, that pilots are what keep flying safe, but we are now encountering areas for which we are not training pilots. That needs to be fixed. I have presented several examples here, and there are a lot more. We have not fixed exposure to microbursts really (although we are somewhat protected by MIT's LL algorithm at 67 U.S. airports and HKG), as a quick additional example.