Jeff, I seem to fit in the same bracket as you, I too am from the '60s. At the time that I hung up my headset for the last time in a 747, I was flying with a much younger crowd as that is the way of things. The sad part of that was the amount of aviation lore that was going out the door with folks like me and not being passed along. Sure, aviation lore is a broad menu item with a lot of hidden spam in it but most of it stems back to lessons learned the hard way. As I grew older I was more easily able to pick out the “spam” from the “sausage” in that omelet. The point is that even the spam was often worth a nibble because there was usually a kernel of fact mixed in there somewhere.
Today’s pilots aren’t as exposed to issues that “we” faced for a variety of reasons. Mostly, improvements in technology, engineering and quality control, and communications has eliminated the need for a lot of the knowledge you and I learned the hard way. That is good. That said, technology (computers) and communications can fail regardless of what the engineers say. If they didn’t, then why is there a need for maintenance? So, what happens when parts of the gee whiz stuff fails… the pilot is left with his/her own knowledge base. If that “base” is skimpy then that pilot is left with whatever pot of “luck” he/she has. Consider the Atlas 767 crash in Texas a couple of years back… a “fully qualified” crew and a fully operational aircraft ended up in a figurative blacking smoking hole. Not saying that anyone couldn’t have ended up there but a more experienced crewmember at the yoke might have saved the day, possibly, maybe…