What has happened in fifty years of engineering and engineering education?

This paper has been inspired by an article in the Sydney Morning Herald of 17 November 2001, in which the writer stated 40,000-plus new students will enter the 11 universities, offering 1,350 courses, in the Australian state of New South Wales, and remarks on the tactics being undertaken (some, no doubt, also underhanden) to entice as many students as they desire. This author sees a question arising from those figures: is tertiary education better for all that size and variety? In particular, engineering education? After a short time, with a few hours of subconscious reflection on that article, a question formed: how many, if any, of those eager students-to-be are aware of the changes that have occurred in the state's university system through the last half-century (whether for better or for worse), with the belief very few would have any idea, particularly those just leaving high school. Some mature-age entrants may. However, two factors reduce such a possibility: any under 40 would only know what the system was like by hearing it from older people; so few entrants would be expected to know it first-hand, because they would have to be over 70 years of age. So, how has engineering education, and the engineering profession, changed, in 50 years?