I've worked peripherally in O&G for 5 years now, and there's too much about it that I don't get, but there are some recent trends I and others have observed that suggest that many of the characteristics people take for granted about the industry might be changing. Wall Street just isn't pumping money into it like it used to. That might be a lingering effect of the downturn, but I think some of it has to do with the arrival of renewables, which aren't going away.
When I joined my company in 2014 (chemical supplier), I was told the next annual meeting was going to be in St. Thomas. Then it was California. Then it was cancelled altogether. We finally got around to having one in San Antonio just last year. This year, it was in downtown Houston, but only for the sales force. The downturn is over and yet, here we are. The point is that the days of people lighting cigars with $100 bills isn't that far away in the rear view mirror, but people still seem to think they're up ahead. I don't think they are.
The sky-high salaries are going to come down. Either that, or the number of folks making them will drop due to layoffs. Speaking of layoffs, they happen by the hundreds of thousands every decade or so anyway thanks to the boom and bust inherent with the industry. Many of the folks who get the axe never go back to O&G. People talk about a generation gap in the workforce, with lots of young people and folks approaching retirement, but nobody in between. That's because those people went elsewhere.
Bottom line is I don't see the GND, in the likely watered-down form it will take, doing all that much to alter the natural trajectory of the industry, which is to become overall more hostile to its workforce.