Really you can. You look at the engineers who create steaming piles, and you look at the ones who don't. Over a year or two, the difference is easy to spot. For people who care to spot it.
If there's no competent front-line technical management who can successfully make this simple comparison, then, sure, in that case the team may be fucked.
If there's no competent front-line technical management who can successfully make this simple comparison, then, sure, in that case the team may be fucked.