In effect, you're right. They are very automated.

To mega-ELI5 it, the general process is that the pilots are in control until the plane is in the air after takeoff. Then they flip on autopilot, and from here until landing, it's just moving a series of knobs to tell the autopilot how high you want to fly, what direction you want to go or what navigational marker you want to fly toward, and a few more granular things to keep the ride smooth. Mind you, they usually get instructions about these from controllers on the ground if they weren't predetermined.

Once landing starts, the pilots dial in whatever pre-designed flightpath the controllers ask for (or a spot to circle as part of a queue if necessary), and the autopilot flies it. Once the plane is lined up with the runway and on its way back to the ground, then the pilots take control again and stick the landing.

If this makes you anxious about how little humanity is in the process, don't be! The whole reason planes basically feel like unmoving rocks while cruising is because the computer is that good at keeping control. There's also about a half-dozen duplicates of every little component, so even if several things beef it on a flight, there's still enough backups to avoid emergency.