I worked a couple decades for an outfit that had numerous civil engineers. Many were just plain lost without a book or having some example to copy. I caught on to this early on when an old engineer was retiring and I commented to him. His reply was that to be accepted as an engineer when he was a kid you had to have a nature ability to create and invent and that was no longer a standard.
I had no problem believing him.
I have practiced as a petroleum engineer for 40 years. Much of it was doing mechinacial, hydraulic and electrical engineering related work though I am a civil engineer by degree. Innovation, the ability to see things in three dimensions before you build them, to have a sense of machines and how they work and a natural curiosity to learn more are still necessary. Much of my career was spent in subsea operations combining cutting edge technologies to create new solutions as we moved from 1,000 feet of water to 10,000 feet.
I do not think you can be an engineer without wanting to constantly learn. Without that you are a technician waiting on engineers to create a new process or solution for you to follow or execute.