/execute carries over the executor's OP level for executed commands

This can be observed in singleplayer by dropping an item on the ground and running the following command in the chat:

/execute as @e[type=minecraft:item,limit=1] run reload

While /reload requires a higher OP level than 2, the item is allowed to run it because the player's OP level is higher than 2.

On multiplayer, this can be observed by running the following command in the chat:

/execute as @e[type=minecraft:item,limit=1] run stop

This will stop the server and server logs will show that it was the item that stopped the server, with no indication that the player ran a /execute command to cause this to happen.