London definitely has an exaggerated case of this (Nathan Barley really is far too close to home regarding the way he treats Pingu), but it's happening everywhe

London definitely has an exaggerated case of this (Nathan Barley really is far too close to home regarding the way he treats Pingu), but it's happening everywhere. The thing is it's like tax preparation: most people should probably be able to do it themselves, but once you want something interesting done you're going to need a professional. If all you develop as a software developer is monkey patching stuff together, then yes, you're in trouble, either from normal people, or from the products of other developers. However, the fun part of the job has always been being able to punch through big piles of crap to find ways to radically simplify what's going on in order to get an apparently magical improvement. That part is an art, and isn't going away in a hurry.