> The solution is to get rid of all the people who write and process reports and empower the people who actually produce stuff to do it better.

That’s the solution if you’re the business owner.

That’s definitely not the solution if you’re a manager in charge of this useless activity, in fact, you should increase the amount of reports being written as much as humanly possible. The more underlings under you= more power and prestige.

This is the principal-agent problem writ large. As the comment mentioned above, also see Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs essay and book.