[hamstergene]

Bankruptcy metaphor is applicable too: when enough debt accumulates, all the capable engineers start leaving the team, and newly hired once never stay for long. The project will either get scraped as unsuccessful, or rewritten/replaced with another one.

This is why it is important to refactor dangerous system deficiencies sooner. If tech debt takes 2 weeks to clean, one can always squeeze that into the plans. If tech debt takes 1 year to clean, it is nigh impossible to persuade the business give that much time.