[pedrolll]

>I'd argue that programmers are held in high regard now--witness all of the news articles in the past year about "software engineers taking over the world"

This doesn't prove much. The media you follow might have these articles, but most of the world still don't know much about programmers or hold them in high regard. If you work in Silicon Valley, I'd say it's a bubble, outside of which people think very differently about ICT.