My degree (somewhat recent, CS) had a more top-down approach and started from programming DS/A, then you could branch outward into OS fundamentals and hardware

My degree (somewhat recent, CS) had a more top-down approach and started from programming DS/A, then you could branch outward into OS fundamentals and hardware knowledge. End result was probably similar, but starting from user-level programming gives people the freedom to specialize in other things. Seems like age is positively correlated with lower level knowledge which makes me worry who will be doing all of that kind of development in the future when the greybeards retire