Consultants are expendable. I've worked for 4 major consulting firms and Strongbridge is the only one in which HR and Management openly spoke ill of long-time consultants who were part of the onboarding team, then pulled off of gigs and cut from the bench. It created a threatening environment from which consultants could be released at any time for any reason.
Further, consultants are paid once a month, and the final pay is a convoluted algorithm of what's left over after the agency's "take." It's indicative of a thin cash-flow standing highly dependent on clients' payments that finally trickles down to the consultant.