You might be right. Though I think this is a cousin of "I'm just following orders." Too many people don't speak up. Is there nobody who feels embarrassed that this is what they're a part of?

"Hey dad, what did you do at work today?"

"I worked with some lawyers to make an indecipherable contract so that we can extract extra money for a service someone doesn't want."

I guess the answer is some mix of "make the org structure so complex that everyone can feel innocent because no one person is pulling the trigger" (I don't buy it, that just means incompetent managers) plus a heaping scoop of cognitive dissonance.

I think the root cause is the lack of social consequences for this kind of antisocial behaviour. Charles Boycott[0] engaged in a similar kind of behaviour and in response the local community refused to engage with him.

That particular kind of community has largely disappeared. Furthermore, the consequences of someone's actions are often so far removed from the people they interact with that the behaviour becomes easily excused.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Boycott

There’s two layers to it.

With a sufficiently large enough org, you can build it in discrete enough parts (assuming it’s a building something based) that only the one who creates the final part is the one who knows what the ultimate goal is or the one who pulls the trigger. These people are also high enough to be inured to any effects of their decision. The second layer is even if you can see where it’s going and you do care, is it worth it to speak up and get fired? I know whistleblowers are meant to be protected (speaking only for the US) but with at-will employment and certain conditions that favor employers, how do you know they won’t cycle in someone who will do it anyway?

My experience is that they somehow delusion themselves into thinking they are doing a good thing and providing a good service.