I was with support for over 6 years and consider many of you family. Support is a pyramid with a foundation of L2 and a tip of L4/Staff Eng but this model only works if everyone is competent and pulls their share.
When I left it was popular for Support Management, upon receiving a call from an account team about a case would immediately escalate it to Staff Eng, end stop. I actually overheard one recently-promoted-to-VP engaged in water cooler talk w/ middle management proclaim it as their 'secret to success'. Don't worry Mr Sales Guy, I'll get my best guys on this right away. You know I take care of you. Huh, it seems after three years I'm still bitter to have witnessed this pathetic behavior rewarded.
The old format was small groups of highly qualified people (we had more than a few PhD's, CCIEs, etc). It was fun. We worked our asses off, pulled rabbits from our collective asses and the customers loved us because we could solve their issues quickly. The new way seems to be to go for the cheapest labor and rely on the handful who can be saddled with the responsibility to drag the group across the finish line while sitting next to senior management who themselves spend the day socializing and watching baseball videos on youtube.
The secret to a good support organization is to pay well and hire the really smart people. They'll be four times as productive and customers really like it when their problems are resolved on the first call instead of being passed around and sent form emails asking a bunch of standardized, unrelated questions. The additional expense is saved in middle management because senior level people don't need someone watching their every move.
Tend to agree with the things stated in @W7SC6cP-19bgr ‘s post. Thought this should be more visible.