Where are the plumbers and physicists?

In the recent Jesse Michels release with Eric W and Eric D, EW raises the question of “where are the staff?”.

Is there any possible connection here with former claims of the US taking people from disaster zones of other countries? I think that was mentioned in context of the “psionic assets” saga, that they were given better lives elsewhere anyways, so let’s ignore the moral implications - is basically how it was justified.

Maybe we have a stable of people who do menial tasks in DUMBs and aren’t allowed to leave or “go home” as EW put it. ?

As far as physicists, it’s almost plausible today it’s all AI or mostly AI. Doesn’t really answer it for years past though. Maybe we had baller AI 10 years ago that no one knew about or could imagine but not in the 90s or before right?