[Mark Felton]

He stands on the shoulders of giants.

Or perhaps he is lamenting that engineers now are mostly corporate slave technicians, managed by non-engineers without intellect, vision, dreams or passion.

[aruanan]

Or perhaps he is lamenting that engineers now are mostly corporate slave technicians, managed by non-engineers without intellect, vision, dreams or passion.

Sort of like why the Japanese steel industry was able to do so well back in the 70's. They used state of the art engineering. The US steel industry at the time was managed by accountants who wanted to squeeze out every last percent of plant capacity. Problem was that the plants were pretty much living museums. Or so I have heard.

[saminfl]

...managed by non-engineers without intellect, vision, dreams or passion.

That is a big part of the problem. I saw the greatest electronics company in the world go down the tubes and then disappear in a buyout when the non-engineers took over.

[BRK]

Or perhaps he is lamenting that engineers now are mostly corporate slave technicians, managed by non-engineers without intellect, vision, dreams or passion.

You forgot to mention the lack of integrity.

There is a Dilbert cartoon out there where that pointy haired lady demands that Dilbert teach her how to be an engineer "even if it takes all day". Dilbert explains to her that it takes years to learn how to be an engineer, BUT if she wants to be an engineers boss, then no training at all is required. This is so true that it is saddening.