[netjiro]

Traditionally middle managers are added to facilitate coordination. Today we can expect more of our people, and we have great tools. When moving towards higher autonomy and transparent shared communication most of the coordination and communication traditionally done by middle management is no longer required, and will instead run p2p between the devs while being shared and documented on the asynchronous shared communications platform (not email!).

Many middle managers have been moved into that layer from technical roles. They are often happy to return to more technical work.

In my projects I don't use a middle layer. I have the technical people who have the core scientific/development/production skills and I have a final decision layer of those who by reality have the final say over how money is spent and which goals to prioritise.

This has worked very well up to about 50ppl with exceptionally low overhead. That said, would not try this with people I can't trust. But I would never hire people I can't trust.