SNIP
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>The PC got their impetus because the IBM mainframes systems could not provide the users the capablility they needed. The users voted with their feet and went out and bought that dreaded thing called a PC and either Visicalc or Multiplan and started creating their own data and the organiztion became much more proficient to the chagrin of the IT folks. If IBM had their way the only computer an organization would ever need would be a mainframe. I'm not too sure the IT environment today isn't in the same mind set today about system development.

I agree with all you wrote as it's the way I saw it all happen too.

Regarding your last paragraph, I fear that yesterday's (renegade) PC developer has become today's IT manager and has the same drive for CONTROL that their mainframe predecessors had.
Today's IT manager sees moving from the practical to the theoretical (design patterns, project life cycles, decision processes and much more) as "growing" and as elevating them above the rabble. They see their urge to CONTROL more as "enlightened guidance" than as squashing valuable working systems. They know, without ever having been there, that "leading edge" is the only place to be.
That much of their enlightenment come from vendors' marketing material escapes most of them.

cheers