I started programming in late 90s but not professionally until 2006 I think, this was probably the late phase of transition to internet as a dominant factor in computing - so I think it gave me enough perspective as to how things changed, plus talking to older developers, reading stuff online and on the forums I know we've come a loong way as an industry.
Or you just don't like management / like programming?
On the other hand, I don't like having to suffer stupid enterprise project managers either, though in my line of work it's better than the norm (more startup-y -- heck, we are at 100 people or so and our founder/boss still codes like crazy, same for the CTO).
I think the ideal for our kind of persons is having your own company -- either an one person one, or a bigger outfit but with someone else handling the marketing and finance parts. You get to both program and chose what and how to deliver.
Not everybody's interested in climbing the corporate ladder or in architecture, management, or consulting. Some people are content to be senior engineers.
"we've come a loong way as an industry"
The industry has certainly changed a lot, but if you keep your skills up to date, that's not going to be an issue.
That stuff a competent graybeard knows already.
You don't think they disappeared in 1990 and re-appeared magically today, or that they didn't kept up with the times during their career, right?
In addition, they would know all the solid stuff -- the things programmers before the internet had to learn the hard way, and lots of today's dilettantes lack.
And you must be very young (20 something?) if you really believe that "the stuff you did in software 20 years ago has absolutely nothing to do with the stuff that's being done today". That's simply not true -- and triply not true for 15 years ago.