KMD has postulated the special case of airline upper management.
The general case applies to corporate upper management which screws customers, employees, stockholders and the various levels of government in whichever way maximises their bonuses.
Is Colgan or Continental any less moral than your average US corporation or government entity of similar size? -- not by very much if at all.
Deregulation and the above cited corporate culture have been very hard on the integrity of employed professionals in many fields. North American pilots in particular know that there's scores of aspiring pilots willing to work for any turbine operator for Burger King wages whatever the roster.
It's not just the big corporations.
Here in Canada there's all sorts of smaller operators who have to take shortcuts to stay in business. Pilots who complain about current or former employers to Transport Canada generally find the effort futile.