[alexpetralia]

This is politics! Politics is quite literally the development of consensus (whether it's corporate politics, national politics, etc.). Without consensus (agreement, buy-in), large-scale things do not get done. Politicking - which includes relationship building, framing, vision setting, leadership, debate and empathy, among many other things - is not necessarily intuitive. It is a skill like any other.

[sgtnoodle]

I think there's negative connotations about "politics" that people are implying within the context of corporate work environments. Specifically: arbitrary beurocracy, fragile personalities, back-channel communication, ego stroking, chest thumping and back-stabbing.

From a pure textbook definition of politics, yeah there's politics everywhere, and folk need to learn how to interact with coworkers in a healthy, productive manner. For folk going into engineering, I really like competitive student projects as a way to learn those skills.