Abrastraction costs efficiency

I hadn't really thought about it until recently, but it seems to me that often (not necessarily always) that abstraction costs efficiency. In order to provide a abstracted and simple interface, it may be necessary to introduce inefficiency into the design. Or the absence of knowledge at the higher levels of how things work at a lower level mean that the high level makes inefficient user of the lower level.

This concept applies to computers, but I think also to the structure of organisations and societies.