And yet you don't see this in other fields. (Sports? Well, that's on the tin. You do see it in manual labor though :) Take science, for example. There, the older set suffocates the younger ones and they dream of regicide and paradigm shifts.

So imo the underlying issue is that software work, unless it rakes in bags of cash, is not respected as a professional field. (Ever see anyone push to "teach kids how to argue a case in court!"? Coding is information age labor. Needs "young muscle" paraphrasing our absent host, Paul G.)

Possibly something has gone wrong if you are chasing programming work after 40 -- channeling society here, relax -- and yet as an older gentleman coder :) I take quiet satisfaction at the self destructive behavior of the young filters poo pooing "experience". 40 rolls over before you know it. Ding.