It was always known that athletes aged like milk - everything is fine until it isn’t.

Looks like they’re trying to add a lot of other careers to that list…

"Modern management" omits any understanding of work process or human labor capabilities. They are not concerned with what it takes or how it gets done; they are only concerned about product out the door and overhead costs.

This is not just prejudice. It had been famously said about The Boeing Company that it was "run by engineers." That wasn't entirely true, but it was true enough in spirit. Middle management were usually promoted from the engineering ranks---not that they were either the best engineers or the best middle managers, but they at least understood the engineering, and understood the engineers, and were able to learn. Upper management was a broader set, but they still paid attention to the engineers, and sometimes found out for themselves. (A telling story about past CEO Bill Allen: The Company was pondering whether to get into the business of making commercial jet aircraft. Allen was a lawyer, but he heard the engineers make their case. Then he arranged to be taken on a test flight in a company-produced B-47, fitted up in a high-altitude pressure suit, and installed in the forward bombardier compartment. They took off and flew around for some time at operational altitude. Allen was alone in the compartment, meditating on the experience. They came down, he was removed from the airplane...and decided this was the way of the future. The rest became history.) The ethos of the Company was: "We will perform the best engineering in the world, and if we are good at it, we will prosper."

This all changed upon the 1997 merger with McDonnell-Douglas, whereupon the former Boeing management ranks were decimated, replaced by MACDAC middle managers and top brass, few of whom understood engineering, and all of whom had a different ethos: "We are here to make as much money as possible, and we will do engineering only if it is absolutely required."

The short story of the long downhill slide was that the technical staff management was routed and replaced by HR types, technical skill codes were eliminated, and knowing what your staff was capable of doing was not a requirement of satisfactory management. Well, we then began to lose competitions or have problems with contracts (still ongoing). I saw all this through the last half of my career. It got to the point where there was literally no one left who knew what I did or what i could do. I was at retirement age, so I pulled the plug. Leaving the plant for the last time felt like Lot leaving Sodom: no looking back.