Eventual regulation of system administration? I think so.

This is the key point. It's SO HARD to grow as a sysadmin, because there are very few people who can pass on information. We have pretty much one textbook (TPoSNA: http://everythingsysadmin.com/ ), and a few organizations like LOPSA and USENIX, but there are almost no Windows or Mac specific sysadmins who join.

There are also places where regulation is already happening, albeit in a top down manner, like HIPPA. I doubt top down "you must do this" regulation would help, but accreditation where people have to know and ought to follow best practices would likely do more good.