Almost, but not quite. I'm afraid it is imposible to log progress using applicatives.

gistfile1.hs

module Main where

import Data.Monoid
import Control.Applicative
import Data.Functor.Compose
import Control.Monad
import Control.Monad.Trans.State.Strict

type SteppedIO a = Compose ((,) (Sum Int)) (Compose IO (State Int)) a

step :: IO a -> SteppedIO a
step cmd = Compose ( Sum 1, Compose (fmap pure cmd) 
                            <* 
                            Compose (pure (modify succ)) 
                            <*
                            Compose (fmap pure (putStrLn "hi")) )

countSteps :: SteppedIO a -> Int
countSteps = getSum . fst . getCompose

exec :: SteppedIO a -> IO a
exec =  fmap (flip evalState 0) . getCompose . snd . getCompose

program :: SteppedIO () 
program =
    step (putStrLn "aaa") 
    *>  
    step (putStrLn "bbb")
    *>
    step (putStrLn "ccc")

main :: IO ()
main = do
    putStrLn $ "Number of steps: " ++ show (countSteps program)
    exec program