The vast majority of corporate america is a dying creature then.

The problem is that the vast majority of the upstarts who will eat them will also die, -and- even the winners may not usurp anything for 20+ years. At which point they, too, will likely start 'dying'.

I think you exaggerate the diagnosis. As with a patient with a disease, you have to modify treatment. The reality is that learning to deal with office politics is an important skill to have.

It's really easy to say "politics" with a look of scorn on your face...and then turn around and read about 'influencers' and 'how to win friends and influence people' and '7 habits of highly effective people' and etc, and think "oh, hey, figuring out how to learn what people are thinking and appeal to people's needs is super important". They're the same thing.

'Jumping over hierarchy is a criminal offense' - sometimes yes, sometimes no. The point you miss is that with enough people, hierarchy can be necessary. If you've ever been in a position where you have to make strategic decisions, you -have- to delegate. In fact, many of the things that make me feel good as a developer, such as being empowered to make decisions (beyond just the code, but in terms of features and things), require someone else to trust me to make those decisions (i.e., delegation).

"Well, our whole team makes the decisions"; fine, are there other teams working on other things? Do you all make your own decisions? Because if so, you have delegated responsibilities to those other teams, just as they have with you. If not, then people who are less informed than you are getting a voice, and that's just unnecessary noise.

As soon as delegation occurs, I don't -want- people crossing over unless it's incredibly important. Same situation, of multiple teams; do you want someone on another team coming to you to complain about issues on their team? Of course not; that's for their team to fix. Unless the issue is something so bad it threatens you and your team, you don't want to hear about it.

In a hierarchy, the same thing happens. I delegate to someone and entrust them with seeing it to its success; I do not WANT someone re-burdening me with that problem, -unless- it's vital I be informed, and that person knows I am not being informed.

Yes, this can break. People can start valuing the hierarchy more than what it's attempting to achieve, I grant you. But as often as not what I've seen are people jumping up the hierarchy to complain about things that are not sufficiently urgent. And part of that is perspective; what is going to bother someone higher in the hierarchy is not necessarily what bothers someone lower down. And yes, understanding that, and knowing what to do about it, is "politics", but also, alternatively, it's "empathy and influence".

Or, put another way, what's the difference between 'manipulating' and 'influencing'? That's the difference between 'politics' and 'organizational intellect'. It's trying to achieve one's goals dealing with a single person, vs trying to achieve one's goals while dealing with multiple. Because when dealing with multiple people, there are always politics, and you can't merely throw up your hands and decide to never deal with it. I wish you could, I'm not always good enough to win the battles I need to win...but I recognize that it's not something I can just avoid.