As an independent consultant/software developer, I'm deeply sympathetic to the author and freelance web communities issues. However it seems like the issue here

As an independent consultant/software developer, I'm deeply sympathetic to the author and freelance web communities issues. However it seems like the issue here is not that web design work is drying up, it's that web design work for freelancers is drying up. If all of the companies that used to contract out to freelancers now want permanent employees, then that's probably where you're going to need to go.