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The Management Circle of Death

I am caught in what I am going to term the management circle of death. It is my belief that as you move up the ranks in an organization, it becomes your responsibility to make decisions. Part of being in "'management" is that you have to manage other people's issues. Otherwise, as a manager, why would they even come to you for advice or decisions?
In my current situation, a typical scenario plays out like this. 
  1. I have an issue that needs to be escalated. So I escalate it.
  2. I am either told to either handle the issue myself, or the escalation path continues laterally.
  3. At that point, instead of being continued to be escalated up, it's actually pushed back down another path to a peer of mine.
  4. At that point, the issue ends up right back in my lap
If that's not very self-defeating, I don't know what is. Managers don't like to hear about issues. But guess what? That's what you get paid to do. You can coach your people to not only come to you with issues, but also potential options for resolution. At that point, you can do what you are really paid to do and that is to make decisions-- not just decisions, but educated and informed decisions. 
There is this book called the Progress Principle  that I am reading that lays out situations where one project team delivers well and another one doesn't. The one that doesn't deliver very well is bogged down with corporate politics, inhibiting factors, passive resistance, and one roadblock after another. There is no recognition for any small wins - probably because there aren't any - and the environment just sucks the life out of being motivated. 
It would be safe to say that I can relate.
As every management consultant would say, scenarios like this are the reason the profession exists. But then I would say that because I'm in a situation like this, am I really a management consultant? 

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