Are they in demand now? They’re notoriously fraudulent at this point and I’m not sure their reputation can recover from the bad actors in the space.

Not in their traditional form now that the zeitgeist of the ZIRP tech boom is over. The waves of media stories about tech layoffs have probably dampened the hopes of those that would have been previously inclined, and the economical conditions mean that less have the luxury or means to spend months unemployed or part-time.

I have see a surge of bootcamp-esque places in tech destinations that seem to be offering a "find the spark again" (and/or "fill the resume gap after the layoff" if you're a cynical prick like me) that seem to cater to the already educated/experienced crowd, which I feel are potentially viable.

As someone who did a year-long bootcamp-esque program in web development at a community college, followed by employment in tech (during which I picked up a BSc and MS in Comp Sci part-time while working), I can say that a very good bootcamp program can teach you to code in a very skilled manner, well-and-above what you pick up in a BSc in CS.

And unless you work early on at a place with a big emphasis on properly educating and mentoring juniors off the bat, you can have a big leg up with raw coding skill imo.

I feel like they'll always exist in some form. Regardless of how likely it is to get jobs through them, people are always willing to spend money on the unlikely hope of an easier/better life. People are still going to university and spending tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on degrees that probably won't let them make anywhere close to that amount of money in the foreseeable future.

But the demand might drop a bit anyway. People have noticed how dire the job hunting situation is at the moment, and it's especially bad in tech. I suspect some people will be put off by that anyway.

For sure. It's not like the people will actually get jobs, but they still can sell the dream.

I was wondering about something related. Will there be universities in 10 years?

The obvious answer is yes. But I’m having a hard time imagining universities 10 years from now remotely resembling the behemoths they are today.

I think so, always going to be some people looking for directed learning to get them started. There are still a ton of dev jobs out there.

If interest rates drop further and anti-trust goes back to being consolidation friendly so VC's can once again get their payouts by selling their startups to big tech, then you'll see more VC investment into startups which will drive demand for tech workers and, as such, make bootcamp grads attractive again.