Continuing the theme of forced team leads, a well-known joking theory came to mind called The Peter Principle. Its essence is that in any hierarchical system a person strives to the level of their incompetence. And it, in my opinion, though joking, is cool.
For a joking theory - a corresponding example. We regularly play Rocket League with a friend almost since its release, seven years. Reached a quite high rank, top 10-15% at peak or something like that. And what now? And now we have to sweat in every game and burn over every mistake. Of course, this is because opponents are some nerds, and we're impostors who somehow ended up at the same level with fantastic luck. A couple weeks without the game - you slide down due to lack of practice, while the "enemy is leveling up". Before, the game brought pleasure, now the game feels like wild stress. And so with all games where there's rating, Dota, CS, noticed?
In this example you can replace the context from rated games to career advancements. The rules of the game are the same - competent people are promoted over time. If they cope - they're promoted more. Whether they want it or not - they don't ask so often, and they themselves don't know. Sooner or later a moment comes when a person, maybe, spent a bit less time on work, maybe due to circumstances briefly left, changed context by changing company - returning to their own former level is very difficult. Or maybe simply after a routine promotion everything went downhill, because competencies weren't enough to do precisely this work. I see this constantly.
At the same time, staying in one place and enjoying it is truly an art that I envy. In single-player games without rating, by the way, it's unbearably boring to play.