I do think it is important to distinguish management between the staff(not meaning the higher ups) support type managers and the report-to's(I&M/C&E 1st lines). A lot of good folks on the staff side that do their job well with some that require serious skill. These folks don't appear to be in on the us vs them plot. I guess it's debatable that their job could be done just as well by a lower wage person. Not saying it's right, just saying it could be debatable in some circumstances.
I will say that the report-to 1st lines do appear to fall into the yes-man paper pushing category. Definitely a get it from both sides job. Some know that walking into the job, some find out the hard way. Some seem to want to work with the crew everyday and some seem to want to work against the crew every day. Count yourself blessed if you have the first, that will get you the things you need, stay out of the way the rest of the time, and go to bat for you when needed. Very few 1st lines left that even remotely know their @$$ from a whole in the ground these days.
Sad when the best thing you can say about your manager is that you only see him once a month when he does his safety observation.
It is definitely within reason to say that their work could be absorbed by the 2nd level, but hey, when do we operate within reason?