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Tom L.I think that authentication and grading are intertwined, as the grader has to answer:
1. Is it real?
2. If so, has it been altered?
3. If not, what is the grade?
The grading itself is not very reliable, as evidenced by the different grades a single card has received on submission to the same or different companies. It may only be a half grade difference, but even that kind of an error means that there are fundamental problems with the grading (I discussed that in another thread). But often you see full grade differences, or a card might be trimmed one day, and a 7 the next.
But on vintage material, the grading isn't the hardest part - the authentication and ensuring that a card hasn't been altered is where some level of skill comes in. (Though I would argue that being consistent all the time is too tough for most graders. I mean, most people can figure out the broad categories of "nice, OK, not nice, and trashed." But when they try to divide it up farther - say difference between NM+ and NM-MT, or between EX and EX+, I think they are rarely consistent for a number of different reasons.)
Plus, look at some of the mail catalogues. You might have two PSA 7 1941 Play Ball Ted Williams cards, and one might be $2000, and the other might be $2250. If one is better than the other, how can they both be the same grade under the current 'precise' systems? The answer is that one is mis-graded. (Maybe if they had broader categories, I could live with the price differences.)