One of my grandfather was building huge oil extractions platforms. You can bet 50 years later he was still complaining about his work being interrupted.
It's not a new thing, but it does affect engineers a lot because their job is to solve new problems on complex systems regularly, and it involves creativity, abstract thinking and holding a lot of variables in your head.
Today, IT is one of the field where you have the most engineers, and by nature they master the most important communication device made by man: the Internet. So you hear them the most. They are not cry babies, they are more numerous and can be more vocal than other professions with the same problem.
I've seen many times on Twitter non-programmers basically calling us cry-babies. However, they are often arguing against an opinion they invented.
"I hate interruptions" does not mean "I hate interruptions and I believe I'm the only person in the world affected by them"