Photography these days...where did we go wrong?????

So I have had this topic brewing in my brain for some time now. I thought it would be a good thing for me to emotionally puke about to you. Please feel free to comment back to me to let me know how you feel about it!!!

Here's the issue:
Photography. More specific the path that digital has put photography on.

{Some background about me and my relationship with photography}
Ever since I was a child I loved to take pictures. LOVED.  I would steal my Mom's Polaroid camera every chance I got and take random pictures around the house. It is only now why I know why she would get so mad!!! (Polaroid film is flippin crazy expensive!!!)
It has always been a part of me. I started over 13 years ago when I was a sophomore in high school. While kids were making out in the darkroom I was shooting, developing and printing. I was in LOVE with the whole process. There was no digital option when I began learning. IN fact I feel really lucky that I came to know this art in the tail end of an era. The era where film ruled and it didn't lie.  If you sucked it showed. If you screwed up you reshot. If you ruined your film while developing you reshot and so on and so forth. There was no delete button. This required the photographer to do it right and know they did it right the first time. It was hands on, it was only for people who had true passion. NO I will fix it in photoshop later.
I can't say I was good at it. I can't say I was the best, because I wasn't. BUt what I can say is that I loved it.
When I graduated High school I got a job at Kiddie Kandids. At the time they still shot everything on film. It required me to know I got the shot. It took time. It took skill.  In the subsequent years following I worked many places. Different studios, freelancing, developing and printing. All of which were film based.
When digital came into the mainstream I refused to give in and switch over. I felt  I was contributing to the demise of film if I did so. BUT over time I realized that in order to stay competitive I had to change with the times. I purchased my first digital camera in 2006. I was so frustrated at first at how different a digital camera acted. I couldn't seem to really nail it like I did with film. I got so frustrated I felt like quitting, but I just couldn't.

Fast forward to present day. I have come a long way in my skill and technical ability and my passion grows the more I learn. I feel confident that I can take great pictures and that what I charge people for portraits is a fair price. I am by no means a full time professional photographer. I always think that you can learn and grow, it is important to be humble. BUT I am confident in my skill to create great images. I do shoot digital because that is what the industry requires I do have an appreciation for it and how far the quality has come. BUT I know I can also pick up a film a camera at any time and shoot just as well if not better.

So here's my issue. Probably about every other day I see someone claiming to be a "professional" photographer.  They go out and buy a lower end DSLR with a kit lens and then after 2 weeks they start marketing themselves as wedding photographers or fashion photographers. It is really frustrating to see.
Now don't get me wrong, I am not talking about someone who likes to take pictures trying to learn more and take their hobby further to a possible career. Everyone has to start some where. Everyone has their own path.
BUT just because you like to take pictures, does NOT make you a photographer.

{I have to mention that there is a special group of people who just have "IT". They can go out buy a camera and take stunning photographs right out the gate. They have raw natural talent. They usually don't even know how great they really are. They have passion and it is oozing from every shot they take. Most the time theses people haven't even touched a film camera let alone shot film. BUT they have that certain "je ne sais quoi". They get a free pass in my book.}

MY POINT: It really saddens me that photography in general has been cheapened. It seems that anyone with a DSLR these days is claiming to be a photographer. They don't have any passion at all. It's like they said to themselves one day "hmmm I am bored and I need to make money, well photography is easy enough, you just push a button right?"
Uuuuuuukkkkkkkk   It's sickening to think that people actually pay someone for complete crap! Someone who knows nothing!!!!! It's so sad. It's cheap. It's heart breaking.

I am all for people learning photography but about 80% of the time I just wanna tell them to at least have enough respect for the art to not charge people until they are ready. And about 70% of the time I just wanna tell them to not quit their day job.  Obviously this is a source of frustration for me and also for many seasoned photographers who get undercut by Noobs with a kit lens for wedding jobs. No one wants to pay a real photographer anymore because they can go hire their kid sisters friend for 50 bucks!!! UGGggggggg..........
I just wish that photography was like it used to be. And elite group of passionate artists who were valued. BUt in today society, somehow people have come to see us as button pushers. Which is totally not true at all.

Oh my dear sweet heavenly art of photography, where did we go wrong?????