I cant speak for 2007. However, in the 4 years I've been here there's quite a bit fewer limitations, and, a few less memory items to have memorized. I had the impression from guys that have been here longer that there were even more before I started here. It seems like there's less emphasis on them these days. But I haven't been on the schoolhouse for a long time.
The flows are now standardized... everyone is supposed to do the same flow the same way, in the past you could use your own flow. It would have been great as a newhire, not so great to break old habits and learn new ones.
As far as systems, I think they are getting away from reverse engineering the plane, but they still expect a high level of knowledge.