Training may or may not be better...airplanes are definitely more capable, but I see more pilots who say, "I have an IFR GPS...I'd never fly an approach using a VOR in real life," than say, "this is a very capable airplane...I need to make sure I'm proficient in more of what it can do."
I also see a lot of pilots who lack significant time acting as PIC. I just saw a guy last week who wanted to get his ATP, but had just over half of the 250 required hours of PIC logged. I'd estimate MAYBE half of that was acting as PIC. I think that makes for generally weaker pilots in the long run.
And yes, I used to know some guys who got hired at Northwest with 250 TT, a Commercial certificate, and no instrument rating. But most of them spent a lot of years in the right seat learning. Upgrade times for the guys I'm seeing now are thousands of hours and several years shorter. They're not getting the opportunity to apprentice like they used to.
I know, that wasn't the OP's question.
On the private flying side, I think average instructor experience is significantly lower than it was in the past. They still started instructing with the same minimal time, but most I know spent a couple thousand hours honing their instructional skills before they got hired elsewhere rather than just a few hundred. That extra instructional experience benefits the guys they're teaching, and so more Private Pilots got benefit of more experienced instructors.