I can confirm - to question or to task management with any issue, even mentioning flight safety concerns can be a very serious offence in this business and automatically labels that person a troublemaker that "does not fit" even if they are actually being professional and are just minding to do their job. To live and practice what you have learnt in CRM and all those courses that they (or indirectly their clients) pay a lot of money for in order to produce a clean company training record on paper to the authority, has serious potential to end in conflict when challenged. It is such a contradiction.
That is probably also why so many spineless wonders make it climbing the corporate ladders with their elbows in this business.
"You better turn another "blind eye" to that paragraph in in the OM because we expect it from you - otherwise you are no longer a part of this family...".
No offense, I am not implying any company or any particular persona in particular here - it is just a part of the reality that I have experienced, not only once. It is no wonder that many collegues are feeling burnt out after serving this business for many years.
For people like Harburn - it just reads to be the normal wear and tear of the business he rules.