[BossingAround]

> Is it simply a disconnect between the hiring process and these sorts of skillsets that is causing this issue, or something else?

I feel like it's a practicality. I like doing front-end and I can hack together pretty much anything you can design in Photoshop (did some side jobs to test exactly this hypothesis), but my company would rather pay for a specialist in front-end to provide higher quality output, and have me do my expertise where I also provide more overall value.

Generalists are great if the company cannot afford more people (startups, typically, love generalists), or if there's a time pressure and there are no other resources.

Generalists are also great in some specific positions, like consultants, possibly (solution) architects, and one-man freelancers for small projects. Not so much for permanent positions at your Fortune 500 companies.