It is a spectrum. My advisor was very hands off. He didn't, ultimately, even really understand my PhD. He knew the problem, but he had no path in mind to solve it, that was up to me. I'm now working (as a software engineer) with a person who is very hands on with his students (and even postdocs) to the point of giving them specific tasks to do and then discussing the result every week. He defines the problems and structure of the solution, the students at least partially are an extension of himself, they are doing stuff he merely doesn't have time to do himself.
And there is everything in between.