I think it's more that activist shareholders (think the likes of Carl Icahn or even Warren Buffet) are not engineers. They're selected for their personalities,

I think it's more that activist shareholders (think the likes of Carl Icahn or even Warren Buffet) are not engineers. They're selected for their personalities, being able to quickly read senior management at a company, and a head for financial engineering. Arguing against myself: management buy-outs are a thing too, and it's possible for a highly technical person to end up buying out their own company (Dell being an example). Also technical people can end up getting promoted to senior leadership in existing MBA-driven companies (example, Intel).