Perhaps I've just been unlucky, but a rather depressing proportion of tech leadership that I have been under in the past appear to have seeked the role in order to:
1. Hide lack of engineering aptitude.
2. Put less work in.
If i'm on the right track with that, then it well explains why they don't care about cultivating a good engineering culture and let everything devolve into a zoo - i.e. everybody feels like everyone is out to get each other, no team work, rep farming, and all that nonsense.
Regarding getting work done:
I agree, I actually believe that it's the cause of the slow death of many companies: A gradual acceptance of nay-sayers, laziness, and "losers", that is to say an acceptance of people who just think that everything is lost, there's no point to fixing anything, and instead choses to spend their time placating why nothing can be done about anything.
It's depressing, and was traumatic for when I was working in those environments in the past. (I like to think) I'm a get shit done and deliver awesome products kind of guy, so these "loser" engineers and leaders are a true PITA.