No need for a 'reasonable image' or status for the profession. Leave all that status nonsense to the real professionals, Doctors, Architects, Lawyers et al.
Having worked as an engineer for a few years, and having golf buddies who are doctors and lawyers, I can safely say that no other professional industry has the same pathetic need for status and image (except maybe TV evangelists and politicians, but then again, I don't count them as professionals). Being a professional has everything to do with work and nothing to do with image.