I admit that I've not and so in that regard, I'm speaking from the perspective of an outside observer. I have worked in middle management before switching back to IC for personal satisfaction reasons.

If I had to guess, this statement that I made is the one you are honing in:

> American corporate culture has devolved into: get promoted into management and coast.

Generalizations are what they are. There are always exceptions etc. And I fully recognize that there are talented, hard-working managers out there.

But, what I'm specifically getting at is that American corporate culture encourages far too many cooks in the kitchen. Managers are necessary. But I think most corporations have far too many. And part of that is because it's the norm to promote your top IC's into management. Eventually the structure becomes top heavy and overly bureaucratic.

To be honest, I don't think what I'm describing is particularly original/surprising.