One of the big banks has instituted this policy recently of firing a certain percentage of the seniors-and-above every year till they get become small enough. Now, do you want to be senior in this firm? :-)

There is a way to ensure career progress even when you are denied career progress : keep doing stuff and talk about it. For example, write a paper. Or write blog posts of this level of quality : http://aphyr.com/posts/294-call-me-maybe-cassandra/. Be good and be available. Then politics and denial of career progress at your current firm will become their problem, not yours.