It's what happens anytime money becomes the point. Call it extrinsic motivation if you prefer. The folks running the company no longer have nor engender a sense of mission; the folks flocking to your career are chasing dollars rather than love or mission. It feels soulless because it is soulless, and if you're one of the few who genuinely care/love, it's crushing.
It's hardly exclusive to programming. My father was a plumber in love with the craft and even the art of it, and by mid 90s the industry had crushed the love right out of him. Happens everywhere.
if you're one of the few who genuinely care/love, it's crushing
There's an upside to disillusionment in that we are stripped of all the ego and false beliefs we hold, as painful as it is. If you're one of the few who genuinely care/love, you'll come to the realizations you did. But the way out of the valley of disillusionment is to realize it doesn't matter how others approach it, because they are irrelevant. You get to do what you love and that's all that matters.
Only the creator will ever truly understand the labor and love that goes into his creation, to expect that level of appreciation or care from others is unwise and irrational. In fact, holding that expectation might even reveal hidden motives that imply one's "love for the craft" is not as genuine as they'd think.
The problem as I see it is that you have to care because the people who are just in it for a paycheck are on your team. Your boss is going to want to know why you aren't as fast as the developers who cut corners in order to get features delivered.
It's hardly exclusive to programming. My father was a plumber in love with the craft and even the art of it, and by mid 90s the industry had crushed the love right out of him. Happens everywhere.