The selections and training was very demanding but the output was someone who could fly and manage an aircraft under almost impossible conditions.
Civil flying is straight-and-level and for gods sake don't upset the passengers. That and the push to save costs today's airplanes are designed for the computer to fly and the pilot to manage the computer (if allowed to do that). Basic air work, situational awareness and experience gained from intensive training, lessons learned and ‘the school of hard knocks’ are being lost.
Lose the computer and you might get lucky and catch up with the airplane before you spatter. Look at Air France putting a perfectly good A330 (Google AF447) into the Atlantic because they could not manage a simple lose of instrumentation. These two 737 Max are crews that did not have a clue and it killed them and a bunch of people that thought those up front knew what they were doing.
OK, rant off.
Well stated (A-10/F-15E pilot) and yes, big difference as you point out.
;-)