I can say firsthand how real & vicious local politics can be in academic institutions.

I made the mistake of openly questioning the research funding of a new professor I began working under in undergrad. It turned out he was the only one who taught the last 2 courses I needed for my CS degree. He took it all very personally. Nearly a 4.0 , success in math & programming competitions for the college, research, none of it mattered. I never finished my CS degree because of those 2 coursse. Years later I went to talk to him about it candidly, hoping I could just keep my head down and finish. But it didn't work.