Interesting article.

Personally, I am a firm believer of becoming an expert. Someone who knows their job well. As a far as a DBA is concerned I think the newer versions are making the life of a DBA easier. This is great for the experienced DBA but for the newbie, this makes learning far harder as one is less likely to come across the little things that make up the 'learning' experience.

I think it is possible to to know less with the newer iterations of SQL and still be called a DBA. This allows a 'DBA' the time and perhaps necessity to learn other skills and become more of a jack of all trades.

Pros and Cons all round here but unless you have the mind-set and inclination I don't feel the role of DBA is as pure as it once was.