Flakes and layers in pastry come from pockets of butter that stay solid until they hit the oven. Once inside, the water in the butter turns to steam and lifts the layers apart.
If the butter is warm when it hits the oven, it just melts and greases the dough. No steam pockets, no layers, no rise.
The fix: cold butter, cold flour, cold hands, cold surface. Some bakers freeze their butter and grate it into the flour.
If the dough feels warm at any point, stop and refrigerate for twenty minutes. Nothing you gain by pushing through beats what you lose in the oven.