Where's Souk's input?
A couple of random points...
The dot com boom in the late 90's pulled a lot of would-be engineers into computer science because the money was much better.
When I graduated with a BSME ('94), there was a definite pecking order of degrees and salaries. Chem E (toughest and highest paying), Mech/Elec (second and next best paying), Civil (next toughest and paid a little less). If you couldnt hack those, you switched to computer science. Fast forward 5 years and some basic HTML skills would get you twice the money.
I think that engineers have done a horrible job of self policing and promoting it as a 'profession'. There used to be a lot more of them so they would be used for crappy tasks that a non-engineer could do (drafting, basic calcs, etc.). IMO, they should be structured more like law firms with 'assistants' and whatnot.
The offshore use of engineers is real. Especially for my old business of mechanical systems design. They send the work to offices overseas, bring it back to 'review' and 'stamp' it. Who knows, maybe thats the way to go. Use higher paid PEs to manage/review larger volumes of work done by overseas guys. That allows them to produce more work, bill more and then make more... right? The trouble is that there is some verbiage about how the work is to be directly overseen by the licensed engineer... is that possible in a virtual office? dunno.
As a side note, I quit my normal consulting engineering job about 7 years ago. I do software work now on my own and probably make more than I would have in my old career path, but without the dilbert lifestyle and litigation.
I sort of miss the engineering stuff. I need to finish up some continuing education work to keep my PE license active, it does me no good in my current gig, but its nice to have.
-Bernie