I no longer work in consultancy. I merely observe that your complaints while valid are missing the point. Rage as you will, nothing is going to change until a strategic direction moves from the top, and I see no evidence of that being likely. The CFO will continue to point out to anyone tempted to invest their way out of this mess that that the balance sheet is in a mess and so the answer should be no. CEOs are often constrained, even if they wanted to do something, colleagues will often conspire to stop them.
It's naive to say "shareholder value is driven by operational efficiency". Long term can be, short term is not. And frankly remuneration of the decision makers is driven by short to medium term value add. Today's CEO will be long gone before the value is banked and by then he won't get the credit. And no, am not defending this, I just work among them..... So cut the "oh Skipness must love the boss class as the poor suffer". Geez!