I've seen on a couple of occasions while working for different companies. In each case, the private equity firm that is effectively the owner for all intents and purposes is cleaning house to "fix" margins. I've seen mass culls of loyal employees that have spent over a decade at these companies. They have become fixtures in their own right. A walking scripture of the history of the company.
So the bigwigs at the top didn't get the valuation that they wanted. There was a strategic failure. Leadership made the wrong call. I understand that a company is for profit and that ultimately an investor or private equity firm will want to cash out at some point. But we all lose sight of the people that made that organization profitable in the first place.
I don't see why "the people" should always have to pay the price. A leadership failure should be a call for action against leadership. The same reason we say civilians shouldn't be targeted in unprovoked conflict applies here: you don't make ordinary people absorb the consequences of a failure they didn't cause.
It's unfair, it's unjust, and it's deplorable.