This reminds me of a passage from Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker, an account of his career in investment banking.  He describes how good investment bankers get promoted to bank management, but traits that made them good managers--ruthlessness, aggressiveness, independence, and the like--make them lousy managers, but "they can only be washed out by proven failure"--i.e, when the enterprises they manage go bankrupt.  Despite plain evidence that they cannot manage, no earlier correction is possible.  

Perhaps our whole civilization is behaving like this.  

The Fates are kind.