Ah, I see what you mean. If my coworkers and I suddenly decided to stop giving a shit, there’s not much that would prevent that as long as we don’t let it get too bad. A lot runs on trust.

Our company has mechanisms to try to force us to do a good job, but that just means working towards the metrics rather than the spirit of our job. Often doing our job well means knowing when to ignore the red tape.

So I think you’re right, the whole world runs that way, it’s an intractable problem.