>I mean if you were a good dev in the 90s chances are right now you're in some senior architect/management/consultant position. If you're competing for the same jobs as 20 something devs then you've probably screwed up somewhere in your career.
Or you just don't like management / like programming?
Yeah, I had some chances, but never liked the role of the pointy haired boss.
On the other hand, I don't like having to suffer stupid enterprise project managers either, though in my line of work it's better than the norm (more startup-y -- heck, we are at 100 people or so and our founder/boss still codes like crazy, same for the CTO).
I think the ideal for our kind of persons is having your own company -- either an one person one, or a bigger outfit but with someone else handling the marketing and finance parts. You get to both program and chose what and how to deliver.
Or you just don't like management / like programming?