Have seen this for the last couple of decades, where I and others I know have worked. Just too much top heavy bloat, even before more automated times.
And the problem is that top heavy just breeds more as those people look to justify their job, which makes your job harder.
Funny story, during the covid people were allowed to be off as much as they think they needed to not spread it around. Some really took advantage, some worked theirs and other overtime to fill.
At the end the managers looked at the numbers and productivity was up by a substantial margin, so what does that tell you?