how bleak is bleak

Will Kelly may have it right - maybe. I think Scott has a better perspective. We will always have the group of technical writers who put a premium on the writing. From experience and anecdotal observation, these are the hacks who find themselves slogging through marcom dreck and dreaming about the next great American novel they'll never write. The tech writers who emphasize the tech are the writers who get the jobs. It may not be a sea change, but there are tech com programs that get it -- the move to develop more than a student's writing and editing skills in such a way that it's not a simple academic folly. Really bright people like Johndan get it and are moving the field in the right direction.