I think it's more likely that you've been lucky. Mind you, I've only started my career in programming, but at least in the jobs I've worked at before then drama

I think it's more likely that you've been lucky. Mind you, I've only started my career in programming, but at least in the jobs I've worked at before then drama has been the norm and not the exception. Whether it was gossip, plain psychos, or folks who would make your part of the job harder it seems the quality of human beings isn't going to be nice at every workplace, meritocracy or not.