More "progress"??

I suppose it was bound to happen.  If you go back to my post of 18th March 2006 you will find me complaining of how over the years my bank has reduced and reduced the number of cashiers there to serve you.  Well now it seems Barclays (which is not my bank) are to take this approach to the ultimate - there will be no cashiers, just self-service machines.  There will be staff there to help you use them, but as I see it that's not the point.  A machine will only do what it is programmed to do, and if that's not what you're after then no amount of "staff armed with iPads" is going to make any difference.  Don't think I want to go quite as far as "come back Mr Mainwaring" but what happened to the idea that banks were there to offer a service?