Except that we continue to slowly automate away human intervention (must be done reasonably; it must still be possible, it is just less current in practice). Ju

Except that we continue to slowly automate away human intervention (must be done reasonably; it must still be possible, it is just less current in practice). Just look at the state of the art in field X at date T, then 10 or 20 years after. We are getting better at some software, and why would we not? Not all SW, but some, and even probably a lot of. Likewise for VLSI (which in some aspects is quite similar to SW); there are some quirks, but it basically works despite the modern designs being of unprecedented complexity. With a reliability way higher that tons of high ends mechanical devices. Same story for off the shelf standard operating systems even for absolutely not critical software: given the application are somehow tolerant to crashes (the user just restart), it is remarkable that we get so few. I'm a firm believer that there is no SW crisis. There are people or companies refusing to apply best practices here and there, or even not knowing they exist, but that is another story.