Bob Sutton contributed to BusinessWeek's "Trouble at the Office" edition and posted about it. I thought his point about people in power fits closely to some of what I've been thinking about entrenchment, so I'll cite the article and his post here,
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_34/b4097052772988.htm?chan=magazine+channel_special+report
and
http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/08/businessweek-issue-on-trouble-at-the-office.html

The basic idea is that anyone placed in a position of power can draw inward, become less helpful to others, and act as if they are exempt from following the same rules as everyone else. In other words, even a small amount of power corrupts in those specific ways.

I haven't written it yet, but that's pretty much the cornerstone of entrenched behavior. But I don't think it necessarily happens only with conferred power--seniority develops more slowly but the effect is the same.

That makes me wonder if it's a false cause / effect relation: if that subordination of others and superordination of one's self is what constitutes power. I suppose the test would be whether the only alternatives for those in that situation are either to become paranoid jerks or to be ineffectual and fail. The Third Way seems what we're looking for here.