Quiet hiring freeze or something worse?

I’ve noticed a lot of backfills being put on indefinite hold across the regional teams. Usually, when we have departures, the requisition is posted almost immediately, but I’m seeing teams operate short-staffed for weeks now without any word on replacements. It’s making the workload completely unsustainable for the folks left behind. There’s no official word on a hiring freeze, but the lack of movement is glaringly obvious to anyone paying attention. I’ve asked about the status of an open headcount on my squad and got a vague non-answer about 'reassessing priorities.' It feels like they are deliberately letting attrition happen to prune the headcount without having to deal with the optics of a formal layoff announcement. It’s exhausting to deal with the constant fire-fighting while leadership pretends everything is status quo. If they are planning a restructure, I wish they’d just rip the band-aid off so we aren't all constantly looking over our shoulders wondering who’s next or if the team is even going to exist in six months. Has anyone else seen the same pattern in their business unit?