Are engineers obsolete?

The engineering profession faces the loss of its leadership in American technology. Signs of distress are many. School enrollment falls steadily while the most gifted shift to “pure” science. Why? Part of the reason is a revulsion of idealistic youth against the brutality of modern weaponry; part lies in the feeling that technology has, in the main, reached its frontiers. Modern engineering must again become an “art” form, stressing the most fruitful interplay of theory and practice, and must not be afraid of creative improvisation