There's a theory, I think it's from the book Systemantics if I remember right but I might be wrong, that when a system reaches a given size it essentially split

There's a theory, I think it's from the book Systemantics if I remember right but I might be wrong, that when a system reaches a given size it essentially splits into two - one half of the system dedicated to the original function of the system and the other half that exists solely to maintaining the systems existence, regardless of what it does, as well as their power over it. The second half of the theory is that the people in the second camp always have more power than the first. Engineers and people who actually want to get shit done tend to fall into the first camp and management and HR tend to fall into the latter. It goes someway to explaining why after a few decades, big companies can often end up in a field or selling a product completely different to the one they started out with. Edit: It might have been Ackoff's F-Laws and not Systemantics, I'm struggling to remember, hopefully someone else can chime in if it rings a bell.