In most corporations (at those I've been involved with), the people who actually get the work done very rarely advance.

Your career is not the work you do. It's how you're perceived socially within a company structure.

This essay is actually very good: http://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/

My personal experience is that those who are highly skilled and add value become an immediate threat to those who are just "punching a clock". It's important to note that those people may be at any level of an organization.

Damn, thanks for that :/ That's the situation I am currently in, looks like I'm going to have to stop actually working and playing the politics game instead. Or just get another job that's not as soul-crushing.

Probably related to the Gervais Principle.

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-o...

This might also apply to maintainers of legacy systems (especially ones that are in constant state of reengineering)