I agree with everything you say and it illustrates what happens here. Having been in leadership/support positions at every level in an organization, here's my two cents: Of course they want to stop the bleeding immediately and the initial reaction is to do what you described as happening. But true leadership would take it to another level and understand that their decisions have secondary and tertiary effects on those working the front line. Leaders don't lean on the front line to make better decisions. They incorporate and adjust systems that generate the best results. They're not being leaders, they're being managers. And the worst kind of managers are the ones that lay blame on their subordinates.

I came from the military so maybe that's why this looks worse to me. Any leader that tried to blame subordinates for failures would be immediately corrected or eventually removed if it was a pattern of behavior. Just saying.