Isn't this obvious? The quiet quitting and demands for remaining at wfh coupled with other corporations cranking up prices for their products (from energy to bread) made for an uppity worker class. Musk practically telegraphed the corporate leadership consensus as the way to address this. Extreme job insecurity will do its magic.

p.s. the interesting thing to find out is how your friend's former coworkers, peers and juniors, who got to hear about his layoff are taking the news. Shocked? 'Shocked into what' line of queries could enlighten the forum as to the 'wisdom' of company X's payroll triage.