Firing engineers will not have an immediate negative impact on revenue. It takes at least a few quarters or even years for the lack of a skilled workforce to be reflected in a lack of new sales. The people in charge have no intention of sticking around that long. So they have nothing to lose by laying of all most all of the experienced / skilled staff. Our customers are totally boned.
This is it @OTVggpT-gtx, perfectly an concisely explained. Everybody knows layoffs don't work in the long run, but those in charge don't care. They will be here long enough to reap the benefits of short term bumps, and then be on their merry way. As OP said, our customers are in for a bad surprise.