With low rates, there was a lot of hiring, and the supply demand curve for SWE jobs was in favor of employees. So companies had to compete more for employees,

With low rates, there was a lot of hiring, and the supply demand curve for SWE jobs was in favor of employees. So companies had to compete more for employees, leading to perks like remote work. In an era of hiring freezes and layoffs (including stealth layoffs via RTO), not so much. Does that make line managers better or worse at being line managers? Probably not. But it may affect the experience of being managed if your manager is more or less stressed about fighting for headcount, figuring out who to lay off, fitting performance review ratings to a curve, etc.