[mabbo]

In industry, if my boss started abusing me I would quit and get a job elsewhere. I'm free to leave at any time with no consequences. There's such high demand for developers that I have no reason not to- I'll have another job in 3 weeks.

Because of this, my company has gone to pretty incredible lengths to ensure managers who abuse employees are identified and removed. It's cheaper to remove abusive bosses than it is to constantly hire new developers.

Academia has none of those problems. It's hard to fire an abuser with tenure. PhD students are not hard to replace (it's hard to get into academia!). No one is financially obligated to prevent this kind of abuse. Ethically, morally, yes definitely. But not financially.