Mine is generally the opposite. People retire and their work gets spread out among the next tier down. Bosses notice the work still gets done so the positions go unfilled.

This happens in my company as well.

I call myself a webmaster, because I run a website by myself, from nginx configs to illustrations.

Is it title inflation or deflation? I know no greater title than master of the web, but it has such an anachronistic flair. It feels a little pejorative among engineers of this and that. Kids these days don't respect generalists.

I didn't notice it at my previous companies. The titles matched the roles. When they didn't, it was more of a salary-related technicality than hubris.

Yes. I am an "engineer" in a field I definitely don't do despite never having a degree of any sort. What I really am is a programmer.