What usually happens is some nepo-baby manager gets into an argument with the critical experienced employee. The employee gets “downsized” and his job is outsourced to a 3rd party.
Then they make it through a year without a major issue and the nepo-baby is promoted. 3 months later the completely avoidable catastrophe occurs and the nepo-baby claims “that didn’t happen on under my direction”. More scapegoats are laid-off or fired.








It’s normal to cite your own work if the new paper is a continuation of that research. A references or three is normal and expected.
When somebody publishes a bullshit paper that is eventually withdrawn, every subsequent paper citing the fraudulent work can also be withdrawn as being unreliable.
A sign it’s all bullshit is when you see the majority of the citations for the paper from the same author. This usually doesn’t pass peer review anymore. In hyperspecialized fields with few researchers, they commonly get a little creative on the introduction section to include other authors.