I'm right there with you. Back then we engineered software. C was (and still is) the king of system-level development, without having to drop to assembler (much). Many could do it, but few could do it well. Now? I'm being hounded daily about how some new javascript library is going to change the world. How this or that CSS "revolutionizes" the web. Blah, blah, blah. Add to that the corporate politics where sysadmin scripters will argue that Ruby on Rails is better than any compiled language simply because it's "easy". You know the ones, they're the people who attach themselves to management and give hourly/daily updates about how clever they are. Technology is useless unless it makes life better for us somehow. Yet it seems many are just in love with the technology for it's own sake. Fanboys, zealots all. In the end, I did 2 things:

• Started my own company as a side venue. I don't want it growing like crazy because I'm not willing to take much time away from my family. It's just an outlet where I can do things using all my experience and creativity, and make a little money to boot.
• Accepted a job with a great company where there appears to be room for me to stretch my other skills, yet still develop.

I have to admit, the political side still disgusts me. And I still haven't regained my hunger. But software pays the bills.