If management is looking for people to fire, and you have to somehow defend yourself and/or throw coworkers under the bus, then yes, that's pretty sad and dysfunctional. But that may not be the right way to view this.
You'll probably agree that it's valuable to you for your immediate and upper management to understand what you do for them, why it benefits the company and makes them look good, and why you're incredibly great at it. If they understand this in a deep way, they're much more likely to respect your opinion and work to keep you happy.
It'd be nice if you could just keep your head down, work hard, and expect management to notice that you're doing great and important work. But that will never happen. They're busy people. They don't really understand what you're doing and struggling with, or why you're doing it this way versus that way.
So it's up to you to educate them. You can tell your story better than anyone else, because you're the only one who really knows it...
You'll probably agree that it's valuable to you for your immediate and upper management to understand what you do for them, why it benefits the company and makes them look good, and why you're incredibly great at it. If they understand this in a deep way, they're much more likely to respect your opinion and work to keep you happy.
It'd be nice if you could just keep your head down, work hard, and expect management to notice that you're doing great and important work. But that will never happen. They're busy people. They don't really understand what you're doing and struggling with, or why you're doing it this way versus that way.
So it's up to you to educate them. You can tell your story better than anyone else, because you're the only one who really knows it...