It's the way of the mob for senior officers to tell their superiors that everything is hunky-dory. How many times have you had a visiting dignitary / flag rank come out to where you are deployed and comment on how pleased they are that you are in good morale.
It's all well and good saying "I'd bloody tell them how it is" but - it's the NCOs who end up stamping on anybody whoever does become vocally "off message".
Remove the sycophancy (and the incentive for it) from the armed forces and maybe real opinions will get through to those who count.