Taking a cue from Amy saying "the promise of linked data, however, and all the work needed for good quality metadata in the first place should mean cataloguing is more important than ever (that is how I am selling it!) so a good time to be seeking out and training new people, perhaps?" I'd like to added that I'm actually hopeful for 'our' niche of the profession too. Linked data does require moving away from cataloguing in MARC though which some more traditional colleagues might find a bit of a challenge.
Given that cataloguers learn a lot while on the job, I wonder how we could prepare newbies to the wider field of metadata creation. More emphasis on the the principle that any metadata are for retrieval and collection development? And only then standards and in-house rules?