The fact that it's getting worse says to me that we're just returning to the human mean. For decades programming was seen as the purview of nerds and geeks so the only people who turned to it tended to genuinely like it and master their craft as much as exploit it. Now everyone and their grandma use software so programming has become one of those semi-prestigious professional career paths but without the crazy expensive barrier to entry or restrictions in supply that doctors, lawyers, etc have. Even though programming is largely problem solving and "intellectual" rather than menial physical labor, the field has become so accessible with the internet that the distribution of engineering ability is starting to look a lot more like the usual bell curve centered on "just average".

It was great while it lasted.