The psychological reaction to the power of hierarchy and the difficulty in questioning that power and the inherent internal-monologue questioning of 'what could I have done better?' to satisfy those to whom I report.
Sometimes it's you, sometimes it's them, but like with domestic violence, the victims sometimes / often will, confusingly, go back to their aggressors, further enabling the toxic, and sometimes criminal, behaviour.
There's a fine line between being a 'snowflake' and allowing yourself to be repeatedly victimised, and it's entirely dependent on each individuals "transaction value". Where the economy comes into it is in the lifestyle impact of changing jobs: in an employers market, ruthless behaviour probably has fewer repercussions.
The ticket out of this - in an individual sense - mostly comes through following well-worn ancient wisdom around virtue - humility, integrity, diligence, etc. That gives you an edge over the long run because the virtuous stuff enables sharing and therefore access to a trusted network studying the most interesting problems available(and from there, higher-profile life opportunities), while someone who is out to "make a name for themselves" is spending all their time looking over their shoulder trying to push down the competition and toot the horn on their own work(which is tailored to min/max credibility, not to study anything in particular).
Our economy is perpetually in a state of having the two outlooks overlap each other which accounts for the mixed messages - as soon as a good idea gets popular it gets gamed and gatekept. Keep in mind that we have only grudgingly managed to accept - within the last few centuries - that good economies are not premised on simple conquest and exploitation. We still have a long way to go.