As someone in industry who also teaches early career engineers once every two years, there seems to be a tailing off of enthusiasm in the latest cohort. Does anyone know of an actual data source from which one could draw actual conclusions about this sort of thing, by the way?

It makes sense to me that someone coming up today would be less enthusiastic about the effects of technological innovation given the experiences of the last decade. Growing up in Silicon Valley a generation or two ago it was an article of faith that innovation was going to bring great things to us. Taking that away ought to have an impact on enthusiasm.

Not just the latest cohort, plenty of folks that grew up with technology in the late '90s (i.e. mid 30s) are jaded by the last 5-10 years. Constantly hearing about dark patterns, grifts, anti-consumer practices (and -worker for that matter) will do that.