I must agree, however much I have a knee-jerk reaction. And I think my knee-jerkiness has to do with what gives rise to populism you describe: the belief that something which is negatively experienced was designed to be negatively experienced.
It's a short leap to complete anti-managerialism once one sees malice (I am often guilty of this).
You're right: it's easy to drag out the guillotine without asking honest questions.
To critique something, you first define why it exists. Maybe I missed it, but in my opinion this was treated extremely lightly in the article. Instead it was all about the execution -- a sure sign that the point isn't a real discussion of the thing, but the popular feeling about the thing.