You are so right! I once knew of (fortunately from a bit of a distance, but through a friend’s eyes) this exact dynamic in a most dramatic setting, with tumultuous results. Sorry, can’t give any juicy details b/c there were serious legal ramifications inn the end, charges and counter-charges etc., but it was in a university office setting (think of an office run by the scum of the Duke faculty, but at another institution)..... and the dynamic was exactly what you describe: complacent snivelling brown-nosers with cozy sinecures protected by the boss, a more innovative employee who was known as the best of the office but made the boss uneasy (showing her up too often without meaning to, merely by performing and thinking independently), etc.
There was also an intense stream of leftist politically correct b.s. which made me really feel for my friend (who was in the middle of this as a dreaded white male threat to the university PC culture). Bad combo of the worst of mindless bureaucratic culture and pc nonsense.
I knew several of the people involved and despised them all except for my good friend, who get the hell out after awhile due to the Peyton Place of liberal/dyke-fest/gay/dim-witted political correctness.
It was one of the things that made me despise politically correct academic bureaucrats more than ever, since all the snivelling sycophants were well protected by the bull-dyke boss who could only work with such brown-nosers and not with people of actual performance and accomplishment.
“Remember that academic infighting is bitter and ruthless precisely because the stakes are so small.” — an interesting observation by an old professor.