I've seen a number of examples in my time, smart people who found a niche and then let the world pass them by.

Senior engineers, heads of engineering, architects, generally people who've been in one place for 20+ years, often who have been in charge of technical direction that whole time. Some of them even asked me for advice on getting out... These people tend to be respected within their organisation and have a lot of very narrow-focused domain knowledge, but because they don't move around they haven't had to think their way through any brand new challenges, or learn new techniques and systems.

It's not inevitable, but it is a pattern I've observed.