Even in this thread I see a lot of people conflating consulting with working as a highly paid contractor. I accidentally fell into contracting two years ago when the company I was working for closed unexpectedly. I doubled my yearly income, but I'm still an employee in practice.
Are you perhaps thinking about the distinction between project-based work and staff aug? Staff-aug consulting does essentially make you an effective "employee", just paid differently and with a different level of commitment.
