[ZeroGravitas]

The second paragraph is good, but doesn't go far enough. We're stuck in an aristocratic management culture, where moving up the pyramid makes you a better person. Not a better manager, better employee or more productive, but a better class of person. All the standard ills of e.g. good engineers needing to become substandard managers in order to progress flow directly from that one unspoken assumption.

Why does your manager get paid more than you? It's a simple question that people simply don't ask. The Coasian model of the firm suggest that employees need managers to prevent the other workers slacking off and free riding on your effort. I'd love to work for a business where the really scare talent treaded the managers as the interchangeable, and easily replaceable, support staff that they really are.