A humble Amen to all that you say, tucumseh. What you describe is a corrupt and criminal system.
Just as you say, it is the system that is corrupt and there are always those who are so weak as to be corrupted by it. You also say, and I agree wholeheartedly, that there are many, indeed the vast majority, who fight against the corruption and do the best that they can for the Nation's Security, for the Armed Forces, and for their own Moral Values. Many are VSOs and again I fully concur. But, and here's the rub, the corruption goes unacknowledged, here as well as elsewhere. Those morally weak and incompetent VSOs that have cost us so much in blood and treasure, as denounced by you tuc, go uninvestigated, unchallenged, and unpunished. Indeed, the trinkets and titles of the "honours" system are heaped upon them instead. Others lower down the food chain, outside of the 2*+ firmament that you so rightly describe, are offered as sacrificial goats in their place. That is no way to run a Town Council let alone a major Department of State!
It seems the default choice is to knowingly let such a scandalous system continue, all for the want of challenging it. Why? Because a VSO was once a good egg at running a Squadron, a Station, even a Group? Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Being above the law, protected by others, and choosing your own successor is absolutely corrupt in my view, never mind the additional cost of your own incompetence, Sir!
The other eternal truth is;
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
There is a lot of nothing going on, I think.