I'd also say that more projects fail because of problems with "soft skills" and project management than from anything else. When your marketing division has no idea at all of what can be produced at what time and how much it will cost, you're doomed.
At some shops I've seen, you'd think that the "software manager" is an endangered species. "Management" is selected by a caste system which excludes software people. I think there is a great need for specialists in software management, but many places won't hire them because they don't want to spend the $ and don't want to deal with an assertive software person.
In these lean times (the last 20 years), many companies aren't interested in hiring specialists but would rather hire junior people and take their chances. If you really do need a specialist, it often makes sense to bring in an outside consultant... If you've got some piece that fits in a box and will really stay inside that box.
As for developing your skills it's something you always ought to be doing. I think the HN crowd fetishizes learning exotic new languages -- that's fine, but that's not the way I prefer to do it. Lately I've found that my C#, PHP and Javascript are looking more and more like LISP. Lately I've read about algorithms used in genomics, parsing, and about description logics. On the other hand, I'm also learning salesmanship, getting a ham radio license, and mapping trails in the forests near me.
Part of developing new skils is reading books, getting certifications and stuff like that, but there's no substitute for "going where no man has gone before" and trying to build some of your own systems that push the state of the art... Do that, and pretty soon you'll find there aren't any books or papers about what you're working on.