I don't think the pay is really what changed all that much. Median pay for SWEs according to ZipRecruiter is $118k, which is $40k in 1987 USD (the year the person in the article started). BLS data from 1987 puts that at mid-way through the 4th income quintile, which is middle clash-ish.

Levels.fyi slants towards the higher end of pay and they say $192k, which is $65.4k in 1987 or right at the bottom of the top quintile.

Part of what changed is that software abstracted enough for hardware and software to become separate fields, so a much smaller portion of software folks are able to wire together batteries and motors and what not to go with their software.