Politics is in the eye of the beholder I think, and even though toxic politicking at work is definitely real, I suspect a lot of what is accused as "politicking

Politics is in the eye of the beholder I think, and even though toxic politicking at work is definitely real, I suspect a lot of what is accused as "politicking" is just sour grapes for people with poor people skills, and people who refuse to consider soft skills to be a necessary core competency, especially at senior and staff levels. Take some of my practices for example: I lead and design many projects, and if I know a particular element of my proposal will be controversial for a particular stakeholder, I will schedule a review with them privately before to make sure the solution I'm proposing actually works for them, and also make any needed changes before getting in front of a larger audience. This ultimately just wastes less time for everyone and makes product better. But for someone cynically inclined I'd be easily accused of some kind of backdoor politicking. A lot of "politics" is just communication and soft skills.