Commercial pilots these days spend very little time actually "flying" the plane. You'll hear the autopilot disengage alarm most times just as the plane crosses the threshold on landing, and the computer is given control almost immediately after takeoff. So a pilot with 6000 hours of flying time actually has very little of that in stick time.
Combine that with the full computerization of the plane and pilots are struggling to react to in-flight emergencies -- Air France, Indonesia, and Ethiopia now being prime examples.
It's a Catch 22, though. I spend a lot of time in the air. I would prefer the computer systems flying the plane in most instances. But our pilots need more time on the stick -- and in simulators -- than before.
My next door neighbor is a flight instructor for American. I’ll ask him about the lack of stick time. He says planes are so safe now that in flight problems are extremely rare.
He also says most of his instruction is done on simulators, not in planes.