Maybe its because I constantly work with companies who have been between stages 3 and 4 for a very long time.

That's because companies between these stages lose the capability to do anything effective themselves, but still have the money to hire lots of consultants :-)

And yes, I am quite familiar with the spectacle of a dozen and a half of mysterious linked Excel spreadsheets which work ("work" is defined as not crashing, it's not like anyone can check what they output) only if the stars are aligned correctly and no one touches them, ever X-D But that's usually less a consequence of the metastasing bureaucracy and more a case of not very competent people in over their heads.