imo, it's all about 'performance based salaries' and 'risk reduction'.
No 'manager' is prepared to take a 'risk' by accepting that someone lower on the payscale ladder might know something more than they do. It might make them look bad!
The issue is that said 'manager' isn't put in place solely by competence anymore. The capitalist system has self destructed thanks to greed (which is the basis of it's outlook anyway)
As much as we hope for altruism, it just doesn't exist anymore