Absolutely not true. Brown nosing is rife within, and endemic to, those companies that do not have a well-managed system of checks and balances such as the seniority system provides.
As I said above, this is complete and utterly incorrect, both within and beyond the airline industry.
You really must stop drinking the Kool-Aid Re-Heat. I could provide you with a list of blue chip firms across all spheres of industry where my contemparies work where brown nosing is rife, possibly endemic. I could give you examples of where office politics promotes the wrong candidate resulting in the destruction of an effective team, the exodus of key staff and the collapse of effectiveness in departments. If you really believe that a true meritocracy exists outside your world of BA beancounting then I suggest you retire from this forum as you will have about as much credibility as the chem-trailers who used to blight us here.