I found myself in the same situation only a few months ago. I was one of the so-called “valuable employees” and was a primary go-to person at the time. In 2020 we lost around 60% of the total personnel count (40% from layoffs, then more and more over time from attrition) from our entire division so they decided to consolidate teams together meaning I wasn’t only doing the job I was hired to do, now I had to do the work that 4 different dedicated teams had to do at the same time. At the start of 2021, my previous employer decided to shift focus purely on cost saving measures in order to make up for the lost revenue in 2020 and slashed ALL planned work for 2021, was constantly told no on all of my requests to do interesting work and work I wanted to do, and was told not to expect any training budget for the foreseeable future and not to expect any merit raises for the year. I did warn them that they needed to throw me a bone … they needed to give me SOMETHING to stay… some glimmer of hope. And they still said no. That is what made my decision.
It was clear they didn’t care about keeping “top talent” anymore. They just wanted button pushers - and that is what they have now. I have heard of big issues going on now, but it is no longer my problem. Obviously I am no longer there and much happier where I am at now.