In my (limited) experience (about five years ago), the recruiters were always engaging, helpful and friendly. However, as soon as one technical person (usually young) got involved, the temperature dropped about thirty degrees.

I may not be God's gift to programming, but I'm not that bad. I do, for example, have over thirty years' experience shipping extremely high-Quality products, in very challenging environments. In many fields, that usually commands a tiny bit of respect.