tl;dr: AI has removed the natural speed limit on bad engineering, letting weak developers generate massive PRs and architectural decisions faster than competent engineers can review or untangle them. Since reversing bad decisions (schema changes, unnecessary services) remains expensive while creating them is now trivial, technical debt compounds far faster than before. The result: good engineers with strong judgment become more valuable, while mediocre ones become liabilities—likely widening salary gaps across knowledge work generally.