Here's the thing, though. If it weren't for government regulations holding civil engineers to a higher standard, they simply wouldn't produce the same quality.

Here's the thing, though. If it weren't for government regulations holding civil engineers to a higher standard, they simply wouldn't produce the same quality. Unless there are strong business requirements demanding high quality code, no business is going to pay the costs of it. No business will ever willingly do the right thing unless someone is holding a gun to it demanding they do so. They simply won't be able to compete against businesses that aren't. The true craftsmen out there will consistently see themselves passed on for promotions, and receive negative performance evaluations in environments where features introduced to a codebase are treated as far more important than bugs introduced into a codebase. The folks who treat it as a job will quickly find their salaries increase as they migrate into management positions.