I really don't think that publishing is every going to go away. Everyone thinks they can write a book and the cold, honest truth is that most people can't. They don't have the skill and they don't have the creativity, but they'll pump out 100,000 words of mess anyhow and self-publish it and hope that people will buy it. Publishers are our protectors against bad books. Yes, many bad books get published - our more literary snob friends will point out the likes of Dan Brown. But Dan Brown is immensely popular for a reason - he writes a fairly good suspense novel in a setting that has been created with above-avergae research.