So is there such a thing as a DSP engineer nowadays?
Yes there is. There definetely is there such a thing called DSP  Engineer, but it is not exactly what the article described, i think it even goes more high level.

Nowadays, most companies relies on already established Knowledge such as standards, or papers from IEEE or AES, or such places. So a DSP engineer requires now more than ever, a lot of knowledge about Programming, in a low level fashion, programming in Assemly, C/C++ to producte robust, reliable, mantainable, understandable and expandable code. It is true what the artcile says that the are cookbooks, so if you don't remember exactly how LMS algorithm goes, you can pick up the book and refresh it in 5 minutes. But the concept needs to be there. If you are completely new to DSP, but you know a lot about programming and Kernel and operating systems, you will have a hard time implementing algorithms if you don't know the basics.

There is no real answer to your question but i state again my first comment. Yes there is, but it has incorporated a lot more about embedded Systems that what it had bewteen 1960 and 1980.