Oh, quite. But the breadth of the realm is part of the problem. Engineering spans industry, both directions ( or three and four ), so what is being out-sourced in software support, or in programming, is not in geotechnical. Some of the construction disciplines are just now getting leads from Indian drafting subconsultants, for example. Check out MIT's Course I (Engineering) offerings. Lumping all of engineering together for any statistic is no noisy it is meaningless. Frankly, we do not have a lot of built environment engineers, but we are getting along alright. I do share the feeling that we are not recognized well enough for the responsibility. And we have a no-failure expectation in society today, something which is impossible. As a teacher, I relate well to that last statement of yours.
You make some pretty good points. All I can say is THANK GOD FOR ENGINEERS.