In my 36 years in the RAF I am still not sure if ANY of my many, many so-say aspirational Flight Commanders/Sqn Commanders/ Station Commanders "leaders" actually lead anything. More like, they didn't rock their particular boat to ensure that THEY climbed up their particular pole towards their higher pension and bollocks to the rest of us.
Since leaving, I detect that commercial life outside the RAF is more akin to real life.
So, is the RAF/Navy/ARMY quite simply a respectable way of dropping out of (real) society?