I think that is part of the point. "As hire As. Bs hire Cs." A-tier folks want to work with the best, B-tier folks want to work with lackeys that will do their bidding. It's pretty clear there's no A-tier folks in charge at the moment.
If you've ever worked on a government contract, you would know there are not and have never been A's on the government side.
This gets repeated a lot but in reality hiring is a skillset that good programmers sorely lack.