You still see that "captain is always right" attitude in most of Asia and the third world. This is a lot of the reason that their accident rates are much higher.

UAL started crew resource management (CRM) training back in the 80s. It has developed over time to include many different aspects and continues to evolve.

Take my job as an F/O. Bob Buck talked about this in a couple of his books. When he started at TWA, he was lucky if he got to do any more than swing the gear lever. Today my job is much more involved. While the captain is still the final authority, it's much more of a team game.