I think, as they said, the organization was becoming too complex, probably too top-heavy in management. Every McDonald’s I’m in always seems busy as well.
A lot of the commenters are fixating on the retail side of things, when the issues McDonald's corporate is trying to address are much higher.
The clown is a huge corporate entity, with worldwide operations and multiple decades of operations as a publicly traded business. They are not trying to make hamburgers, they're trying to make money, and after decades of profit-seeking and growth, large public corporations eventually reach a point where they can't do both any more and likely can't do either one well. They got real estate to manage, pensions to fund, and contracts that have to be negotiated years ahead of time.
That's one reason why mass layoffs usually result in a short term stock bump, it's one of the quickest ways to a net + on the year end finances that a large mature corporation can do.