This is a major reason why I gave up on my childhood dream of being a game developer. The industry is screwed, and it'll continue to be as long as it's profitable to create games like that.
In fact, it's only going to get worse as people keep expecting more and more out of next-gen games. AAA game budgets can't keep skyrocketing like they did over the past decade, and that means squeezing the workforce to produce more with less.
If you ever want to fulfill your childhood dream, you can always go indie.
If you're a programmer, contracting out the art/music is very common, and the indie dev community is quite small and self-organizing for that kind of stuff.
If you have the idea of "I must work on games, no matter what," you will be rewarded commensurately.
If you have the idea of "I want to work, and games would be cool, but not worth more than an extra 5 hours of work per week and losing $5,000 of salary per year," then the industry would have to pay the talent more.
In fact, it's only going to get worse as people keep expecting more and more out of next-gen games. AAA game budgets can't keep skyrocketing like they did over the past decade, and that means squeezing the workforce to produce more with less.