In the early days of the graphical Web, everybody was a generalist, mainly because the technology wasn’t moving so fast that keeping track of everything required full-time attention, but also because the standards for excellence were much lower. As the web matured, the market inevitably encouraged the rise of specialists - programmers, database developers, UI architects, graphic designers, etc.
But some of us refused to give up our ‘webmaster’ titles and kept learning, kept plugging along, incrementally gaining experience in a range of different disciplines.
It seems that Web 2.0 may also signal the Return of the Generalists.