I'd say the opposite. The current engineering market is too much like the contractor world. Real progress is made by working for decades on a particular team,

I'd say the opposite. The current engineering market is too much like the contractor world. Real progress is made by working for decades on a particular team, on a particular problem set. See the work done in Bell Labs in the 40s and 70s, the work done at Cray in the 70s and 80s, and the work done at Intel at the beginning of the transistor revolution. A strong team of people, working together, growing to fill in each others weaknesses - that is what produces the best results.