This is actually part of classic corporate behavior: * Company starts small, based on people who want to get things done (and get rich)
* Small company succeeds, discovers need to expand
* Small company becomes big company
* At some point a threshold is passed: behaviors (such as are typical in middle management) begin to appear, and are tolerated, because the company is successful.
* But, the mid management behaviors are lethal in the long term. The reason its long term instead of short term is because the company success is a kind of inertia -- it takes a while before the "decelerating" behavior of mid management affects the company.
* By the time the success inertia has been countered, those mid managers have moved on, either through making a fortune, or being able to parlay their "success" into other positions in other companies.
Pessimistic, but I've observed it in many circumstances, up close and personal in one or two (including my current position).