Designing a PCB beyond run of the mill, low speed electronics can be reduced to CAD type etch a sketch artwork generation, however, you get beyond a few dozen parts and/or high pin count FPGAs and microprocessors the task of designing such a PCB is very involved and a specialized field.
One of the limiting factors is the software used in the design process, the schematic capture, library parts creation, and the layout editor itself and auto route technology. The software for this task can get very expensive quickly as you move up the chain; these can be $100K plus PC based applications, and only two companies do this, Mentor Graphics and Cadence (yes; there are half dozen minor players).
With a small market for this stuff, none of it works as advertized and it can take years to learn the systems and where the land mines are. The learning process itself is daunting, there are no books or college courses really, for high end PCB design and the use of the tools. The software itself has its roots back to the '80s with both companies, and it is obvious that much of it has not been dusted off and seen significant development in decades.
There is an open source project or two out there, but the real pros are just too busy cranking out designs to participate.
If I were a young computer science student, electronics and graphics guru I think this area is one I would look into; the big guys need some heat and we would all love to see a new player and startup in the high end PCB EDA market.
As far as PCB design as a career choice, look elsewhere, these jobs are now going offshore, like everything else in electronics in the USA, we are losing our edge.
