According to Tokyo-based graphic designer and curator Kenya Harra the role of the designer is changing.
Kenya Harra: The role of the designer is changing from Design Indaba on Vimeo.
Also read this paper written by Lauren Tan of the Northumbria University in Newcastle presented at the International of Societies in Industrial Design (ICSID) in Singapore (2009) about ‘Perspectives of the changing role of the designer’. The pdf is over here.