PEs often buy targets from other PEs. However, financial maneuvering is probably not the only thing they do in the company.
During a boom, this happened a lot as valuations kept growing, and a new buyer could expect this to continue during their tenure until they sold to the next buyer at an even higher valuation. Now, the PE-to-PE market is very stuck. Valuations and selling expectations have been pushed too high under the funds relative to comparables and the public market, and there is no room even with this balance sheet maneuvering to increase risk (returns), which would be another option.