I believe many work groups would say the very same thing about themselves and their own work titles and such. This is not something limited to DBAs but probably to most people. Because most people has to deal with problems and solve them and that can be problems that does not fall under their specific category of their work title. Lets not get ahead of ourselves.

What is the current reality of the different database-related jobs being demanded by IT departments? I believe that is as different as every job and work place is to any other job and work place. Where I am, I'm a dev. I fix bugs, I build new functions, I schedule sql jobs and I write them, I fine tune sql code as well as c# code, I build reports for sql report manager, I do simple and complex reports. I'm by definition not a dba however, we do not have someone titled dba where I'm at. I've been in this business for only three years and thus I have a lot to learn but in this business it is my belief that the day you stop to learn that you have aged out of it and need to move on.

If you strive to find a title to cling on to and do no more and no less I think your individual value will decline, it will rise when you work not only in the box you might have wanted to stay in.