You might find Yoric's comment above hard to believe but actually it's not uncommon. If you work in enough places over time you will come across this behavior.

There are two kinds of people. Those who achieve success in life by getting better at getting things done (and as a side effect, often having authority over others). Those who succeed by gaining power over others without necessarily getting anything done. In fact often they are incompetent when it comes to getting things done but highly competent at the worst kind of politics.

Usually the only people who can deal with the politicians are those above them. These people thrive where the top is weak. It's not hard to deal with them. The first sign is dishonesty. The way to spot this is to frequently do a deep dive. Go down to the people at the lower level and investigate why things went wrong (they always go wrong under these people)

If not these people will destroy that part of your business and drive out the competent people.

Of course this is why honesty in national politics is also so important. But in this case it is the people who need to drive these types out.