A couple of comments:

First, this is about the UK, which is a more "class-based" society than the US. It probably also applies to the US, but perhaps a bit less.

Second, they note that an architecture firm didn't operate the same way, because results mattered, and customers could tell whether they were being snowed. Many of us here are in programming, which (at least much of the time) is a similar environment. We're fortunate to be able to escape this kind of stuff. However, we should be aware that it may be more prevalent in society as a whole than we see and experience.