I've worked with multiple teams in multiple divisions, and I've never experienced a manager like the one described. In fact, Apple has had the most professional managers I have ever had the experience of working with.

I've known both a few utter tools at Apple (who got forced out) and a few people currently there (who are amazing).

I guess what I'm most interested in is: does Apple have a way to get rid of bad managers? Amazon doesn't seem to, from what I've heard, and Google has some who become "politically entrenched" and thus hard to eliminate. "Only have great managers" is probably an impossible goal, but some kind of correction process is both necessary and probably a reasonable thing to implement.

I'll admit in the corporate world it's a slow process to weed out any bad apples (pun not intended), but it does happen. There's accountability on every level.

I knew of a manager who wasn't very good, and once his directs escalated the issue, it was only a month or so until he was out the door.

There's also a sort of probation bad employees can be placed under, but I hear once you're in that boat, it's nearly impossible to get out from it.