Deborah Perelman writes in Eweek:

In the simplest terms: too many IT workplaces have become Dilbert-ized—micromanaged, bureaucratic and stifled creatively. It’s become an environment where busy work is praised and morale is low.

IT is isn’t fun anymore, and while a lack of fun at work may not seem worth stopping the presses over, the long-term effects of depriving a field of appealing work may very likely look like this: Students are turning away from computer science at an alarming rate. There’s a huge talent shortage across the entire field, and, in confidence, enterprise IT workers say they’d probably choose a different career path if they could go back and start over again.

It is really very simple: workplaces in a market system must be either fun, meaningful or profitable compared to other alternatives–or out and out fraud has to be used attract workers. Much IT work was never particularly fun-and had to pay well to attract workers. Expansion of H-1b/L-1 visas loosened that constraint on employers-and so the mercenaries have gone elsewhere–and the various con-jobs used to attract workers are working less well(i.e. the 1 in 6 chance that a stock option in a start up might be worth something real and that serious productivity would be rewarded fairly).