[oldenlessons]

I don't know. People working in web frameworks might be more visible, and more numerous than people working more low level stuff. But I don't think the latter is rarefied atmosphere at all. There are today several times more people working on those base levels than 10 or 20 years ago and I expect the trend to continue.

Sure, they will enable even more people proportionally to not think about those low level systems. But my argument is that the need for that low level expertise has always expanded and will keep expanding.

Automation entails tonnes of complexity that need to be managed. It doesn't just evaporate. More automatic systems will demand more people and teams to learn low level systems in great detail and at high levels of accuracy.