It's worse. There are two cases I've observed. The first is that some of these managers never really understood technical debt in the first place. They ascende

It's worse. There are two cases I've observed. The first is that some of these managers never really understood technical debt in the first place. They ascended to the position because they were willing to do "what it takes" to get the job done, with a "can do" attitude that often meant bowling over those who tried to keep sanity. The second is the people who learned the right way, got into management, and then were crushed by the deadlines and expectations and the only thing they could figure out (while keeping their job) was to acquire more technical debt until it wasn't their problem anymore.