[Dirlewanger]

It's a horrible misnomer of a title, I agree, but here in the states it has stuck for several cascading reasons:

* there's no FE exam needed to call oneself a "software engineer"

* the MBAs doing the hiring have gone through school hearing "software engineer" and so they mentally place them alongside other engineers

* companies hiring software developers don't care to differentiate between a engineer/developer, and as a result...

* software developers (from senior level all the way down to bootcamp graduates) don't give a shit and will put "Engineer" on their resume