As others have said, that's not actually what Private Equity is or does. I mean, SOME do. The slash-and-burn firms that give the industry a bad name and maybe that is the problem-- laymen like you come to think of PE as the easy to digest narrative that non-banking American's can readily understand and have probably experienced (e.g. ToysRus, etc.) and so it becomes shorthand for all PE firms.
Historically PE firms make money in a turn-around or in implementing whatever the individual PE's good at doing (e.g. Finance- cost takeouts, tightening up DSOs or O2C or whatever, Operations- automation, operational efficiencies, SKU rationalizations, fixing processes). It's supposed to be a win/win, everyone is happy and makes money-- the owners, the bank, the shareholders, the employees, the customers. On paper that's supposed to be how it works. Ultimately the goal is to take the risk, work without the pressure of the Street, and then have a positive exit.
It doesn't always work and actually there is a bit of, I won't call it a crisis yet, but some strong headwinds in PE with the horrible M&A and IPO markets of the last few years. Inflation, interest rates and now tariffs are horrible for PE business.
Bloomberg had a good article today actually how even PE is trying to get out of the PE business (or at least the equity part): https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-19/private-equity-firms-are-getting-rid-of-their-equity