If the last paragraph is your perspective on being a pawn in an academic structure, I would love to hear what you think of being a pawn in a corporation.
I suppose a big enough corporation can feel the same, at least in terms of internal politics, but the difference for me is the tenure (well-paid, almost impossible to fire) and adjunct (close to minimum wage, no health insurance, completely disposable) dynamics. Indefensible. And I think the people with tenure don't object to this model simply because they enjoy their privilege.
Not OP, but at at least most corporate pawns are cynically aware of how artificial the system is and that you need to play games to get ahead (or just coast along if you don't care). Academia has a luster of meritocracy when in reality you need to game things just as hard to become successful.