Once the role of professional college administrator became a thing, then they took over. They're paid more than the faculty now. And they run it like a body shop. To pay for their hyperinflated salaries and padded staff.
Speaking as a college professor, this is true. I started noticing really quickly that there was an implicit expectation that faculty be evaluated on their suitability and/or desire to move into administrative positions. This is fine, but it got mingled with professional administrators brought in from other institutions trained in business administration etc. Our president actually had no experience in higher ed prior to their appointment, it all being in large corporate business, and it was seen as a good thing somehow.
Everything has become very hierarchical, run as a corporation, focused on profit maximization, with those profits going progressively more and more to those higher and higher up the administrative chain.
I wish I were being pessimistic about this.