I was watching a program on Dave yesterday called James Mays best toys or something like that, where he pretty much went through the UKs toy history (Hornby, Lego, Sindy, Scaletrix etc)
He got to Meccano, which was infact created by Frank Hornby during a time where Britain was an industrial giant where 'you were never more than 10 yards away from an engineer or mechanic'.
The kids those days were excellent with Meccano because that was the time, constructing and building things and most kids went into that proffesion as it was the work of the time.
The fact is nowadays, there are fewer 'hands on' jobs out there and the industry isnt as large as it used to be. There are also in my opinion fewer people willing to get their hands dity.
Nowadays most people would prefer to sit in an office watching the rain out of the window, rather than being out in it on a ship yard on the banks of the Tyne knocking up another Esso Northumbria!
Mind you though, engineer means loads now! So my post is talking your stereotypical engineering image, mechanical, dirty hands etc.