I think this is the big part of it. I am at a relatively big corp now so everything is very corporate almost by default. The team you land effectively determines your experience.

But at a simple organizational level, the basic idea is that one manager shouldn't have more than 7 reports stands.

I kinda lucked out on my current boss, because this is basically how he approaches stuff. Going above that 4 person limit is how you get into no fun zone.