I would say that outsourcing and importing tons of H1Bs (supply>>demand) drove wages down more than anything. People come from China newly married and go to grad school here, get their buddies to hire them at big pharma and bring the rest of their family to the US. Pharma is happy because they don't have to make any long term commitments/no severance or benefits and can obviously pay much less than a FTE. The FTE positions can go to PhDs in management. I was also fooled into thinking this would be a stable life, and have been spending the first half of my 40s working in an unrelated temp job without any future as well.