Judgment debt didn't disappear when organizations cut the middle layer — it got replaced by something that looks the same from a distance but runs on a different currency: approval. This transmission traces how "getting alignment" became liability distribution instead of judgment, why promotions started rewarding coalition-building over good calls, and why so much decision-making today is ritual without function — the cargo cult of judgment. Three questions to run in your next meeting, and one closing tool that can't be delegated to committee.