> I have a pet theory that a large portion of the decay in our society can be traced back to the layers of abstraction between stakeholders and the things (and

> I have a pet theory that a large portion of the decay in our society can be traced back to the layers of abstraction between stakeholders and the things (and people) they have power over. My pet theory is a specific instance of yours: MBAs wielding spreadsheets (and, more generally, analysts wielding databases) is the abstraction layer.