Privileged is too generic of a word that does not accurately describe the cohorts. There is the capital class. Occupy was after the Capital class but im not sure if they accurately zeroed in on that. Its been too long since then.

Engineers were never part of that class. They work for a living while capital owns assets that work for them.

Engineers were part of the "Intellectual Elite" class that made good money but were super socially progressive. (Think putting BLM signs in their yards while at the same time pricing out the people they claim to help).

They ended up becoming a lot of the Elizabeth Warren cohort after being the Hillary and Obama cohorts(before it fractured into part Bernie part MAGA with the rest going to Hillary).

Extremely socially progressive but don't you dare touch economics.

I would say more precisely, engineers are closer to the managerial or capital wielding class; usually the adversary of the union.