I have to say I disagree. I dont think the skills will ever be lost. There will always be people like me who literally dont know anything at all at present, but want to learn and teach themselves, with any help and advice they can get along the way from those who were in the same position 30 years ago. Sure, Im learning the cnc way and button pushing first, because thats what modern business needs, but I have every intention of learning the manual techniques whenever I have time. I believe that the extra knowledge of learning manual methods will make my products better in the long run, and even if it doesn't I have an interest which makes me want to learn anyway. There'll always be people like that, even if they're learning out of interest nowadays instead of necessity. My 2 cents.