It seems to me a lot of the arguments that the OP made could be said about a lot of jobs. For example, automation. Does it worry me some? Yes. However, there's few jobs out there that aren't subject to being automated. My dad is an airline pilot. I'm not sure if there will be any airline pilots in 50 years. My uncle works on the railroad. Will trains be completely automated in 50 years? Low-level jobs are susceptible, as well, such as cashiering. A lot of office jobs could probably be automated in the future. Middle-management is susceptible. Even a salesman is susceptible if you believe something like the "Manna" story by Marshall Brain could happen.
I know the environment is not great, but it's hard to see me doing anything else outside of something related to aviation and that's certainly susceptible to automation. You just have to do what you love and it will hopefully work out. NC State is a good engineering school and there are more jobs available in the engineering sector, but I just can't see going through four years of boring classes related to engineering and then working at a boring engineering job. The only engineering which I would be interested in is aviation engineering.
That was a bit long-winded, but while the OP has valid points, I just feel like he's being a little reactive based on some sort of personal experience he had.