Holacracy, the avant-garde management system that promised to do away with traditional office hierarchy, is rapidly falling out of favour in the US. The system was all about having no managers, bosses or job titles; just people in "energised" roles within "circles". Teams hold "tactical" and "governance" meetings run by facilitators.So what happened?"For us, holacracy was getting in the way of the work," wrote Andy Doyle, a manager at the popular blogging platform Medium.A year ago Medium was big on holacracy, investing thousands of dollars in consultants and software. No longer. It created worse organisational red tape than the old system, said workers.There are some holacracy success stories in the US - notably at video games producer Valve and tomato processor Morning Star - but the flat, non-management approach has failed to go mainstream.Challenges faced by firms that try holacracy boil down to a familiar problem: it is too complicated and you get bogged down in record-keeping.Shoe retailer Zappos, the biggest company to use holacracy, is reportedly battling on, but 18% of the workforce has taken the buyouts offered to anyone who doesn't want to work that way. ..