1. I see about 1000 engineers every day. Ok bad joke. TV is all entertainers and journalists (haha, no difference either). It's not a problem with engineering, it's the dumbing down of TV and media, which IMO reached the point of no return during the OJ Simpson car chase back in 94.

2. Engineers ARE less hip than average. Leave the hipsterness to English majors that need to make up for their lack of income when it comes to attracting mates. Also "catch" roughly correlates to income, so engineers are fairly high on the list. Based on most women I've talked to they'd consider doctors even less hip than engineers. 100 hours a week in the hospital doesn't leave much time to work on your cultural stylin', unless a BMW 3 series is hip (5 series once they're 40 years old).

3. I think the problem here is management laying off everyone (ie, the makers and the builders) but themselves, resulting in a less severe form of this scenario. Yes, it IS madness, but the problem has little to do with engineers.

you are the media you consume.