Coming from an outsider, having heard about how much sifting there is in Academia, couldn't that be because there's more people that want to be researchers than

Coming from an outsider, having heard about how much sifting there is in Academia, couldn't that be because there's more people that want to be researchers than there are research positions? Someone who works in a sub-field without private sector research positions and with post-docs pushing up against them doesn't seem to be in the strongest negotiating position. I do agree however that it is messed up.