I have already developed a health distrust of consultants, but seeing people I used to go to school with becoming 'senior consultants' has made me even more suspicious.

Be specific.     

leonasskau.co.uk //
Hosting /strategy, /leo, /geopolitics // built Culture3.com // online: leosn.xyz
d33m:mun

Horticulturalist. Environmental hand wringer. Open source enthusiast.  

Just a question of supply and demand for each role, the social circle. 
Do you think the exec doesn’t make permanent roles out of choice, bureaucracy, or something else?

Most of the consultants involved with my work (local government) are essentially long term temps filling roles that exec refuses to formally create. (So we pay through the nose for a contractor instead.)

Same thing happens for field staff but we call those people labour hire. Go figure. 🤷‍♂️