While I've met some incredible, brilliant people working in the firm who are close friends to this day, there's always a cult-like mindset prevalent in people in the consulting industry that makes it different from working anywhere else. The stories of fancy dinners, corporate events, massive benefits are all true, to a certain extent.
Working primarily with an energy company that is deeply entrenched in older technologies and ways of working, I believe the reason consulting companies are portrayed as the anti-thesis of technological advancement is simply because buy-in from senior management from companies like the one I've worked for is difficult. These folks (including their CTO/CIO) are so far away from the working-level and tech that consultants resort to cheap tricks like catchy barely-sensical-jargon/Ivy League graduate profiles/borderline lies to help them land deals.