I have an unpopular opinion that tech workers, especially in the west, are increasingly being perceived by everyone else like investment bankers or consultants were in the 90s (or forever, honestly).

There's not a lot of clarity about what value they bring to the table (since the companies that pay their salaries are often unprofitable) and it's not always obvious what work they actually do (hence the prevailing meme that no one works at FAANG).

Of course, the reality is that numerically, most tech workers don't work for FAANG or hot startups, but public perceptions are usually colored by the most visible subgroup, which happens to be overpaid startup bros.