You're talking about an obvious manifestation of shareholder value: eliminate "unnecessary spending" and see expenses decrease with no impact on quarterly revenue. The concept of shareholder value was pioneered by Jack Welch, who while at GE transformed the company from one that makes things to one that buys and sells things.

Shareholder value runs afoul of the idea of long-term profit and stability; "corporate culture" means "employees that are loyal to you because they don't want to change jobs every eighteen months." Dead-end jobs are far better for shareholder value because that dude doesn't get vested, doesn't get benefits, doesn't get raises and can be replaced by a contractor whose hiring simplifies your books and allows you to move numbers around. Jobs with career paths are better for the long-term health of any company because while capital improvements are depreciated over time, expertise only grows.

There are sixty thousand people in switzerland working for 572 companies producing $27b in revenue every year... making mechanical watches. Often, on tools that date to the turn of the century. By contrast, GM employs 310,000 people and made $37b in revenue in 2017. Apples and oranges, sure, but it demonstrates that there is a value to core expertise, and core expertise is not generated by contractors.