alt Hacker NewsThey are accidentally smart. They have stumbled across the behavioral patterns that get rewarded without consciously thinking much about how to find the behavioral patterns that get rewarded. Which is mostly getting the people above you in the power pyramid to like you, and no relationship to technical skill.
The overall problem can be summarised as we don't live in a meritocracy.
I'd probably amend this that we do live in a meritocracy, but the 'merit' part applies to your ability to navigate the system - not your ability to produce good outcomes.