>as with lawyers, medical doctors, and so on. It's frankly ridiculous that software "engineers" are permitted the title without the responsibility in the US.

It's because 1) most of us don't work on things that can get people jailed or killed and 2) the US leans towards not regulating language so much.

But if it makes you more comfortable, just think of the term "software engineer" as tongue-in-cheek, like some people call janitors "sanitation engineers"