For a while you just could not find what you needed, and with all the hype, alot of not so good candidates were sucked up into the vacuum. There's at least a ten to one difference in usefulness between the top programmer and the bottom, and the ones who could deliver the goods were in hot demand.
Now most of the computer companies have downsized, and most of the dot-coms have vanished. Few are hiring. Those who got in late, and didn't have something special (luck, ability or drive) are hurting or collecting unemployment or adapting to a new, lower, life style.
This article, at least in the opening words I skimmed, tries to score rhetorical points by pointing out the contrast between the scarcity of good programmers in the late 1990's and the current overabundance of so-so programmers. No big deal. Just part of the usual boom and bust of this business, and probably of most other rapidly evolving business's.
You've obviously skimmed too fast. The article states facts proving that highly skilled and talented engineers are currently being replaced by foreign workers on H-1B visas. You should go back and read the article, this time without "skimming". These "so-so" programmers as you call them are those engineers who have passed the age of 40. They are being replaced with "so-so" warm bodies from India, Pakistan, China, and a host of other countries. Companies such as Lucent, Nortel, Sun, and many others are laying off American workers to make room for foreign workers who will work long hours for less...