It's not the fault of the individual engineers, but there just aren't enough positions to fill.
Leadership is accountable to shareholders, the board, and other stakeholders to ensure financial viability.
It sucks, but it is what it is.
I don’t mind eye popping executive pay for exceptional performance, I mind that those positions have zero accountability.
CEOs get fired if the board loses trust in their abilities.
Was that very difficult to see at the time? Sure, but what are those astronomical comp packages buying? Making very difficult calls correctly is their jobs.
The CEO hires the employees assuming ZIRP continues. ZIRP ends. He fires all the extra employees, and gets to fire employees he doesn't need from other departments too along the way. Shareholders benefit either way, and the expendable ex-employees' well-being, visa status, healthcare, etc. is someone else's problem. Market is bad so the remaining employees can't really complain either.
And why is some manager not being publicly flogged for letting that happen?