Shit goes downhill

The problem with top-down management is that it exposes the tiniest flaw of the upper management.

For example, when the CEO disrespects SVP and micromanaging them with fear and intimation, the same behavior will be transmitted down the chain of command and magnifies to the whole company scale.
Those very few in the middle management that knows better will suffer both ways and leave as soon as the stock option vested. 

Another example is hypocrisy in performance review and promotion.When the economy is going down, there is less need to motivate the employee with promotion or raise. Everybody expects that. But instead be frank about it, the whole chain of management uses excuses like "lack of cross-team collaboration" (which is implicitly discouraged) to make the review looks like the employee is incompetent. This kind of hypocrisy is just unethical and unprofessional.