This will take a change of attitude. I entered the industry right around the dotcom bust, when people were still making the jump from their 9-to-5 for whatever big or small company to seeking angel investment and starting their own business. My observation early in my career regarding unions and software engineers was "The first step would be for software engineers to stop thinking their biggest impediment to greatness isn't management; it's the underperforming slacker in the next cube over holding all the 10x engineers back."
But I think that change is coming. Enough engineers have gotten burned (or been through the startup washing machine enough times) to suspect that the profession as a whole needs to be able to self-advocate.
I dunno. I've been waiting for that to happen since the 90s, when the D and R halves of the uniparty fully teamed up to make Wall Street and corporate profits their #1 priority and encouraged the exporting or outsourcing of every job possible. We've had 30+ years to do something about it, but we were always too independent and anti-social for that.
But I think that change is coming. Enough engineers have gotten burned (or been through the startup washing machine enough times) to suspect that the profession as a whole needs to be able to self-advocate.