Some of the professors I know are basically mobsters. They threaten to have people fired if they don't walk the walk the prof. wants them to walk, they operate

Some of the professors I know are basically mobsters. They threaten to have people fired if they don't walk the walk the prof. wants them to walk, they operate in rigged peer-reviewing committees, when sitting on grant review committees they fund their friends even when their grant proposals are bad; and give bad scores to proposals from folks they don't like. The more I stay in academia, the more I find out this is normal. Especially on the top, especially in elite universities. This is disheartening particularly to me because I used to work in corporate, and I used to think then "boy, my work is not being fulfilled here". Now I come here and find out it's backstabbing all the way. I find out that the only way for me to get ahead is by taking sides, being a suck-up, and doing the dirty work the professors want me to do. The professors who've gotten ahead, they know this and basically orchestrate the game.