Brad McGehee wrote:

I was making the assumption that over a long period of time, 50, 100, 500 years, that the role of DBA administrator would probably go away as software could very possibly take over such tasks.

It's nice to know someone is optimistic about our longer-term prospects, both as IT professionals and as human beings!

I think the changes you envision might come about sooner than the timescale you suggest; but I also wonder if, for them to happen, the nature of higher education needs also change, so as to encourage the coalescing of what presently seem to be very disparate professions.

The philosophy of some educational systems, such as that in the US, encourages a broad approach to learning - so that even IT and engineering majors are exposed to some degree to the liberal arts.

Others, as in the UK and Germany, point the student toward a high degree of specialisation at a fairly early age.

Although the American educational system has its critics - many of them deserved - I think its concern for producing a well-rounded student actually would better foster the changes you suggest, than some of the other educational approaches.