Long time ago people could not use computers. You would write down the program you want to get executed or punch it on punch cards. The only people who could

Long time ago people could not use computers. You would write down the program you want to get executed or punch it on punch cards. The only people who could actually operate the computer were... the operators. These people (mainly women) would transfer the program to the computer, execute it and then transfer the answer back to the requestor. This survived into later because an admin on the server is was the only person who could actually operate the server. The rest can only within whatever rights the admin gave them, but for any important operation (like adding a user) you still needed the admin (operator) to take action.