[Samin100]

I think the question "why do software engineers even exist?" can be reframed to ask "what would an end-user programming environment that gives everyone the power of a software engineer look like?"

There are already a few decent task-specific programming environments that let end-users create valuable "software" — the most obvious example being spreadsheets for anything finance-related — however we're still a long ways away from programmers being replaced entirely.

Software engineers are pretty much the modern day scribes. We're literate in programming languages, while the rest of the population is illiterate. We're the only proxy for communicating with computers. So, how do we get the remaining 99% of the population to become literate?

[mtberatwork]

I'm not sure the analogy of the scribe works or that the population needs to be come "literate" in programming languages. You can essentially substitute any profession and the analogy holds true. For example, doctors are literate in medicine, while I am not. Do I need to become literate in medicine (beyond a surface level)? No, this is why professionals exist in the first place, so that I do not need to become "literate" in everything.

[v-erne]

No, the analogy still stands in my opinion - medicine is not "eating the world". It has only very narrow application (very important but still narrow) and software can literally change everything in our lifes (if for the better that's up for discussion). So seeing every one else as illiterate sounds lot better than saying that we need better alphabet.