What Good Is A Songwriter?

Recently I saw a post on Twitter from the songwriter Dan Wilson, asking the question; ‘what good is a songwriter today’? The post received 51 replies stating, amongst others, that a songwriter is a ‘truth teller’, a ‘flashback’ a ‘prophet’ or ‘bard’, someone who can put ‘feeling into words’ where others can’t. All wonderfully vivid. This post started a train of thought for me. In answering Dan’s question on Twitter I asked myself, can you separate the song and the songwriter, and if you do, what is the purpose of a songwriter? Especially in this day and age.