The rise in pay and demand is the root cause. I've been trying to hire an engineer for a month and a half now and nobody knows anything about servers, computers, or protocols. They went through some boot camp or got a CS degree, but aren't passionate about the subject, so they've never looked under the hood. They know what they were taught, and that's it. Eventually I'll be forced to just hire someone, because it appears that everyone who is passionate is already employed.