There's a whole difference in the level of skill needed at the top. The Dilbert Principle was purely observational. I would notice that, time after time, literally the least competent people were being promoted to management. There were always restrictions about hiring from the outside, so if you needed a manager, you weren't going to cannibalize your technical people for that. Companies are laying people off by thousands.
People work long hours.
Salaries aren't skyrocketing. You get a little bit of relief from the fact that many of the things that look like work tools can double as entertainment. I have this new system in place where people give me their telephone number at work. I call them and try to catch them at their desk and ask them what they're doing at that very moment. I've just started and the first three people I called were all using the Internet for personal business.