The beer industry got into trouble. In the 90s, they're moving out of child bearing ages. Time to cut back on day care facilities and maternity wards. They're living in the suburbs driving mini vans. Boomers flooded the job market driving wages down, unemployment up.
Boomers are a rectangle.
Business hierarchy is a triangle. By the late '80s we were discovering career blockaging, plateauing. By the '90s, senior executives were saying the old structure wasn't working anymore, beginning to re-engineer the corporation. That's why we've been delayering and flattening corporate structures. But where you flatten a triangle, promotions become limited.