I'm old enough to recall the business/philosophical discussions about CEO compensation to favor stock so that the long term interests of the CEO were aligned with the long term interests of the company. When I see profits of the company being piled into buybacks, I think that whole movement failed.

Companies should be returning dividends to owners. Buybacks are a workaround for bizarre tax laws that favor speculation (profit from dumping) over investment (profit from holding).

Companies were also supposed to be efficient engines of production which also returned value to society through some element of reducing costs to customers too. Informally, it was supposed to result in a whole-society win-win. That is also failing.

Edit: I should be a bit more specific. I think in some stages of development, it has and still is succeeding very well (developing nations). In other areas like developed nations, there is a regression to inequality that is occurring that is figuratively and literally headed to destabilizing the world.

I think the problem with that is, in the US at least, once a company starts issuing a dividend, it is expected to keep issuing that dividend, no matter what. And not only to keep issuing the dividend, but to increase it over time, too. Companies are expected to cut almost anything else, even taking on debt or laying off workers, before thinking of cutting the dividend.