A lot of recent developments made things possible that were previously outrageous. In-cabin pilots will be reduced to mere backup, and eventually completely replaced by autonomous systems, just like the train engineers do nowadays, with the only pilots left working remotely in command centers ready to take over if needed.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but vast majority of aviation deaths nowadays is caused by human factor, including pilot mistakes.
If we can trust electronic voting or remote surgeries using robots, there’s no reason this couldn’t be a thing. Seems like the predictability of the heavily regulated and standardized aviation makes it a much better candidate for autonomous systems than automotive, and I’d argue that the public has already somewhat OK-ed the latter.