@CynAq @benlockwood A hundred percent the latter! But people have *interests*, which they sometimes act in furtherance of, and can sometimes be induced to act against. (Sometimes they have *multiple* interests, which are in tension with or even negate one another!)
They form unstable coalitions. They take their eye off the ball. They delegate or outsource their own prerogatives of oversight. They have obligations that prevent them from fulfilling their other responsibilities, to themselves or one another. They get tired. They get sick. They burn out.
And the whole time, the *whole* time, someone with opposing interests is acting against them, for legitimate reasons, or illegitimate reasons, or for no reason at all.
This is it. These are the rules of the game. And I just cannot, can not, see how it helps to pretend otherwise.
Anyway, let me leave it there. I’ve said my piece.