It's true that there are more varieties in technology these days but on the other hand, the rise of some of the medium-size SaaS players (Salesforce.com, Dropbo

It's true that there are more varieties in technology these days but on the other hand, the rise of some of the medium-size SaaS players (Salesforce.com, Dropbox.com, Box.net) and some of the "cookie-cutters" technology (wordpress, blogger.com, any CMS system out there) do change the game of consulting. I'm guessing that in the past, one can run a successful and profitable "web-design" business easily as there aren't too many software like Drupal, Wordpress, phpBB, and the customers aren't necessarily "educated" in the sense that they could google these software and learn or hire some high-school kids cheaply out there. Ditto with custom software like PoS, accounting software, CRM, etc. These days people would go with Salesforce, NetSuite, MS Dynamics, and the like. Consultants have to become more specialized and there is a lifespan for those niches as the companies behind those software would like to increase their profits as "agile" as possible. This is definitely tougher on the consultants.