Now this is the "get rich quick" job. 
    People who would have previously entered 
    into more normal businesses with an aim 
    to climbing the ladder into executive 
    positions are looking more and more at 
    programming as a good entry point.

I've started professionally working as a programmer in 2001 (but was interested in the field beforehand), and I would say that apart from a small reprieve straight after the dot-com crash I always remember this being the case (so at least since the mid/late 90s).

I remember stories of people moving/retraining from being lawyers & doctors to programmers in the 90s in hopes of getting some of that startup/internet $$$s...

If anything it's less crazy today than it was 20 years ago.