Ask HN: Analogy of a “tech startup” in previous generations?

I'm referring to the situation of having a big abundance of pseudo white collar jobs pop up out of thin air. You don't need to be a super savvy MBA to make it, but you being business savvy seems to only help a technically strong software engineer.

Previous major technological innovations seemed to give rise to many lower/middle class jobs (factory workers, etc)

This era of technological innovation seems unique in that it is creating a lot more corporate jobs, which seem to be less stable -- a bit more up or out culture, instead of a "check in, check out" factory job. I work at a 20+ billion dollar public company and pretty sure have only only worked with 2 people over the age of 40.

Is the current tech boom in the past 20+ yrs of the internet really that unique though?