I don’t know about other profession, but in 2002, average fresh grad software engineer were making about $45k/yr. Today, fresh grad software engineer should expect between $53k-66k w/ the average/median around $60k. I don’t have info for 1996, but I know in 1987, it was around $27k

Very true, but 1996 was about the start of the big outsourcing wave to India. That has continued and grown as well as expanded into Eastern Europe. My guess is that this has significantly supressed wages for engineers in the US.