And society permits, nay, encourages the lawyers? Case closed.
Not quite. I know what you're implying, that society is totally responsible for the situation, but I don't buy that society is totality to blame. Lawyers are a profession. Professions are distinct from crafts and trades in that they have a responsibility to a higher power than just attorney and client. For lawyers, they have a responsibility to the law and the public good. But the legal profession has always sold itself out of actually existing as a "profession" and they continually reduce their own status to that of a trade by ignoring their responsibilities to the law and the Constitution.
Society gets most of the blame, but I am not willing to hold lawyers blameless.