Carl, I am curious about how many Delta crews you have flown with and observed. I have a friend who is a check airman out of DTW on the 755. He has flown with a lot of Delta crews. The first thing he said to me after doing a bunch of observation flights was he that everything he heard was all wrong. He said your cockpits are every bit as standardized as ours. We heard you were cowboys and after several flights I realized we were all wrong.
You may not like Delta's methods but they have produced results. Delta went 7 years flying over the Atlantic without a single gross navigational error. A record even more impressive when you consider we had more flights over the Atlantic then any other airline. In a MAC inspection where they rode on large number of cockpit observations flights Delta got the first 100 percent grade they ever awarded and a big part of their grading system is cockpit standardization.
We do have some differences from how NWA did things. We give our copilots a little more responsibility and give a little more authority to the Captain. The FAA however has never had a issue with how are cockpits are run in the last 20 years. I fly out of a large base with a different crew almost every flight. We operate very standardized cockpits. Everyone does know what they are expected to do contrary to your opinion.
Take the time to talk to some or your check airman who have actually flown on a large number of Delta flights.