There's another issue to be considered: a manager whose employees constantly discover and solve problems by themselves or as a group without involving the manager, will generally assume no problems were to be had. This is very bad as these invisible problems will not show up when your skip-level or committee reviews candidates for promotions or bonuses, or just generally can make you appear to be low-performing just because you're a quiet, competent problem solver. I've seen this happen on too many teams to count.
Always make sure to do your work and to communicate effectively that you're doing your work, facing hard problems and working hard. Communicating this effectively is far more important than actually doing it, so I'd recommend spending 90% of your working time on this communication, and no more than 10% of your working time on actual problem solving. You are a salaried employee. The only thing you really need to care about is how your manager and their manager feels about you.
Always make sure to do your work and to communicate effectively that you're doing your work, facing hard problems and working hard. Communicating this effectively is far more important than actually doing it, so I'd recommend spending 90% of your working time on this communication, and no more than 10% of your working time on actual problem solving. You are a salaried employee. The only thing you really need to care about is how your manager and their manager feels about you.