[nradov]

When an organization is growing there's enough cake for everyone. It's a positive environment which naturally encourages collaboration. But mathematically speaking, no organization can grow forever. Eventually they reach a stable size or even shrink. At that point it becomes a zero-sum game and the only way to advance your career is at the expense of your colleagues, so you have to shift focus towards politics and managing upwards. If you find yourself in such an environment then unless you've been given the nod from senior leaders as someone on the fast track, you should start looking around for a new job. Realistically the situation is unlikely to improve.

Some static size organizations such as militaries or professional partnerships try to escape this trap with an "up or out" policy that systematically terminates the lowest performers at each level every year in order to open up more opportunities for promotion. This works to an extent, but causes other dysfunctions and probably wouldn't work in most tech companies.