Reply #47: This is my experience also.

[AdHocSolver]

Beginning about forty years ago, there arose the cult of management, as "bean counters" took over more companies. According to the cult of management, a "trained manager" can manage any kind of business. They don't need to understand the technical aspects of the business. They only have to know how to "manipulate the people who actually do the work", and the company will make profit.
(The quality of the product or service is irrelevant. Sales are handled by marketing, and customer "satisfaction" by public relations.)

This phenomenon arose at the same time as the "financialization" of industry. Manufacturing companies were bought by "investment" firms, actual manufacturing of a product was outsourced to slave wage countries such as China, and competing firms were bought and merged with existing holdings or simply put out of business.

New companies are often founded by entrepreneurs who want to "build a better mouse trap" or provide a better service. If the company survives and becomes profitable, the financial pirates zoom in and take over. The new management's sole aim is to squeeze the most profit out of the enterprise. Knowledge of the business is irrelevant to that goal.

Knowledgeable managers would not be effective in maximizing profits. An engineer, for example, might question a decision made by upper management on technical grounds. The manager with the MBA would merely tell his subordinates to "do whatever it takes" to accomplish management goals. If a competent underling might have the audacity to question a management goal on technical grounds, then the underling would be "criticized" for not understanding "the big picture". These are some of the techniques taught to future managers.

We can see the results of this business model in manufacturing, in banking, in health insurance, and most recently in oil exploration.