"Less complex work"

I am facinated by this article from the Wausau Daily Herald (Wisconsin) and the question it raises. In order to save money, a library director is saying that today's librarians do "less complex work." They are reorganizing and cutting the librarians' salary by $10,000 (I am assuming this means each, but looking at the article it is not clear). I want to know more about a library director who would willingly make such a claim publicly (does she even have an MLS?), and I will ask my older collegues what they think about this question. As I am at an academic library, so it is a different environment. I will admit I am very grateful to have computer databases instead of print indexes and I could see collection development having been much more difficult without the computer tools todays vendors provide. However, modern libraries are evolving so quickly. Keeping up with technology and its surrounding trends seems to be half of what I do.

I see patrons of the past valuing the library more than current users do (public and academic), but perhaps this is just an assumption. I can't help feeling like American society was much smarter 40 years ago than it is now. But as I am only in my 20s, my personal experience on any of this is very limited!