One of my old vascular attendings told me, "The Carotid endarterectomy is the one gift God gave the vascular surgeon," so you're not alone in liking the operation: it's clean, fast, and effective.
That being said, there are still plenty of private practice CT guys doing CEAs. In some geographical areas, it's the endovascular stuff that truly separates the CT from vascular surgeons. Then again, in Wichita some of the CT guys routinely do EVARs, so it all depends on referral patterns.
In general, I think CEAs for asymptomatic disease are becoming less prevalent as statin and ASA therapy becomes more prevalent. I'm not sure surgeons will continue to get referrals on those patients with 60-70% stenosis and no symptoms.
