A decision belongs at the lowest level competent to make it. The whole load sits on that last word. Competence is not seniority: it means holding the real information, bearing the real consequences, and having the time in which judgement can actually be exercised. Grant authority without consequence and you get confident nonsense at speed. Impose consequence without authority and you get paralysis and blame. Leave the time undefined and you get decisions that were never really made: the default fired before anyone looked. The decision envelope is where those three conditions meet, and where escalation stops being a habit.