To be fair, lawyers, accountants, and doctors all face strict professional requirements to be degree holders. As such, debating the necessity of a degree serves no practical purpose in those fields.
The decreased need for education in software engineering shouldn't be used as an indicator of its competitiveness. On the contrary, one could argue that is actually more competitive, because anyone can enter the field at any time.
Exactly - Accounting as an example had a much lower bar of entry, similar to programming today. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Andersen -"Hey Arthur Andersen, your a bright kid, you should come work for us") It is very possible programming follows a similar path requiring more and more professional requirements to get a ticket to play.
You have to be a CPA to sign certain kinds of reports that investors depend on and to do certain kinds of audits, but there is a lot of work in accounting without any profession-wide degree or certification requirements.
The decreased need for education in software engineering shouldn't be used as an indicator of its competitiveness. On the contrary, one could argue that is actually more competitive, because anyone can enter the field at any time.