Twelve years ago, when the autopilot disengaged in an Air China jet the crew failed to notice. The plane fell five miles before they recovered and landed it safely. In Los Angeles, due to a controller error an airliner literally landed on top of a smaller commuter plane that was waiting on a runway to be cleared for takeoff. After an indicator light for the landing gear didn't come on in an Eastern airliner, the crew put the plane on autopilot to try to figure out the problem. While they were momentarily distracted, the autopilot disengaged and the plane crashed in the Florida Everglades.
Pilots go into aviation because they enjoy the thrill of actually flying the plane.
Yet as pilots progress in their careers from a single-engine aircraft to a Boeing 777 jetliner, they 'fly' less and less. You become less a hands-on pilot and more a computer monitor. Yet the more you automate a system, the more you take out this flexibility and responsiveness. People also need to be involved, in control, and informed in order to be effective. But as systems become more automated, they're less of each.