[cardiffspaceman]

The $$ is absolutely the higher authority. The question is whether the hierarchy is optimizing for that, or for something else. I think the difficulty for me in reading your comment is that your claim superficially is that $$ takes over and that is bad. But $$ in the organization should be something like profits or productivity. I think your claim might be that higher paid people, idiots, who are supposed to be looking out for $$ force the lower-paid thinkers to submit or quit, and the higher paid people are not really looking out for $$ (as I propose to define it).