You're lucky the CEO had connections that somewhat panned out. I've experienced the "connections" based C-suite hire that was a complete and total net negative. It took 3 years for the removal to happen. It was a painful 3 years.
I have, unfortunately, also seen something similar to your experience. This is why hiring for a role like that is tricky.
I want to say for the record I also once hired an awesome CEO who was humble, sincere, reasonable - and very effective. We're still friends after 25+ years.