Eh, depends...as you point out it is becoming a "lost art".
The average quality of editors is utterly abysmal, so if you're pretty handy with style, or have lived under the cosh of an academic style guide for long enough you can probably get by without an editor.
>lived under the cosh of an academic style guide for long enough you can probably get by without an editor.
I'd say the opposite
As someone who's recently been put back under the "cosh of an academic style guide", I can definitely say the "academic style guide" does NOTHING to help with editing ... it's all about FORMAT
Format is nice, and all ... but almost 100% irrelevant to the content
Then it's a lost cause, you can't expect an editor to understand content, their function is to impose style, any reasonable exposure to formal language should be sufficient (but actually I disagree completely).
If major publications can't employ decent editors what hope have you?
