The thing is that most of the applications do need the complex data and thus do need need deep SQL knowledge. This is why NOSQL (I think) databases became popul

The thing is that most of the applications do need the complex data and thus do need need deep SQL knowledge. This is why NOSQL (I think) databases became popular. A DBA is called an "administrator" for a reason - most of the time he spends making sure the data is replicated and backed up/restored and really you need her help when things go to shits. It happens a lot but still in the majority of cases her role is invisible as the devs are trying to abstract the persistent layer (Hibernate and all other ORM frameworks, for java for example) where SQL-compliant database are just a part of the corporate landscape - not because I need it, but because it is there and all the mentioned processes are there.