I’ve experienced the same thing. Michigan Engineer used to be about young geeks making cool stuff. Now it’s all about climate change, poverty, and diversitaciousness.
In the late 80’s early 90’s engineering was viewed as merely a stepping stone to management, where one is expected to forget everything technical and instead throw MBA word salads. Older engineers, even if they were solving the harder problems, were seen as having lack of ambition since at that point they were supposed to be managers (not even counting being a project lead supervising several engineers and designers, including mentoring the juniors). This was in one of the major engineering and construction companies in the energy industry. One HR drone who was questioning me asked me “Isn’t your career executive or upper management?” When I replied no, it was like I spaketh heresy. Did I make a mistake studying engineering? Should I have stuck with washing dishes?
This was at the height of the yuppie craze. I had moved from the NYC area to Houston, yet there it was. Then again, the company I went to used to have its main engineering office in NYC.