I honestly have not seen a company larger than ~25 people where that was true. Can you give an example?
Perhaps even more so than places with a formal structure.
However, could you explain what you mean with 'political' in this context? Because 'political connections', in my mind, also includes reputation and knowledge of competence. And that doesn't seem like a bad thing.
Even the example you give requires reputation management, as opposed to merely raising a good technical argument at the time (as a new person on the staff).