Yes, SEO is still big business, and it's big business because it's effective. For any term that has even minor commercial relevance, you've generally gotta dig into at least the 3rd or 4th page before you start to see real results.

Google has been successfully gamed essentially for its entire history. The fact that so many technical people believe the propaganda like "SEO doesn't work anymore" just shows how disconnected and gullible they are. And if technical people are naively Googling away, how much hope does that leave for your average citizen?