I just want to add that my brother had this happen today. He's a contractor at Aerojet Rocketdyne, and he asked his direct report whether they'll be renewing his contract next month. They said that they didn't know, because a high level manager who has never met him or likely seen any piece of his work is still assessing my brother's performance.

I pointed out that based on what he knows of the project and his role, he's fully qualified to answer this question: is it at all possible that they're invested in the success of the project, but think that letting him go and then starting a totally new contract hire search is going to make the project any less expensive or faster?

The answer is obvious. They might let him go because they lose interest in this wildly neglected project, but his performance is objectively nowhere near a level where replacing him would save time or money, and if they were serious this decision would've been made weeks ago. They clearly have no idea what they're doing next month and negging him while they try to figure out what the hell their goals are.