I'm not a pilot, but I'd imagine that it's a combination of recognizing and learning from each mistake and a ruthless punishment of severe mistakes.
If you have a culture of reporting each and every mistake, you can receive feedback on what you could have done better in each and every one of those situations. That leads to bad pilots constantly becoming better pilots. Additionally, unlike the doctors in the story, severe mistakes in aviation will result in the death of the pilot, so like those startups that always fire the bottom percentage of their workforce, the really bad pilots will naturally eliminate themselves.
Rockclimbing is similar to flying in their compulsion to study fatal accidents. Climbing magazines will publish fairly in-depth discussions, not out of morbid curiosity but, instead, as a campaign to build awareness among climbers of mistakes that can kill them. This has led to safer gear and practices used in the sport and has undoubtedly saved lives.
By definition, the bad pilots have or will soon crash their aircraft, removing either themselves or at least their equipment (and unfortunately maybe their passengers) from circulation.
I say this as myself a bad pilot, but one who is aware enough of that fact to always fly with dual control.
