I'm at a multiplier between 2-4x U.S. median household income and based on listings I see I feel that range is very good but not "oh my gosh howdeedodat?!?" for developers. Hired.com, for instance, sets the floor for jobs it will show right around 1.5x median income ($75k).
Real wages in the economy are stagnant and we in technology may be sitting on the sundeck of a sinking ship so I understand the "higher up in the stack but the stack is collapsing" aspect of your argument. That said, I totally disagree that a bus driver in 1981 was better off than a software developer in 2015 - there's just no way that makes any sense.
Your average tech worker makes, what? $150K per year? That would equal $51K per year in 1980.
Median household income in 1980 was $16K. Your dad had a pretty awesome salary for being a laborer.
Per Zillow, the median home value in San Francisco is $1,117,300. For the rest of the USA it is $188,900.
If you are willing to drive 2 hours each way to work, and live in the middle of nowhere, you can pay the low price of $630,000 in Gilroy.
Things are crazy here. If you don't live here it can be hard to understand.
Working from those numbers, the bus driver math still doesn't work.