Figurehead Captain

A slightly pejorative but not inaccurate term for the role of the captain on more modern vessels. Came into vogue after Operation Stardust decimated the Earth Federation's fleets.

As automation steadily overtakes judgment in the operation of larger vessels, the role of Captain has steadily come to attract mid-career officers with few serious prospects for advancement and no real interest in the tasks typically assigned to a captain. In practice, these captains serve primarily ceremonial roles, farming out almost all tasks except weddings and funerals to either the officer corps or the ship itself.

This is a phenomenon near-exclusive to the Earth Federation; spacenoid militaries virtually never have this problem.