"Hello Senator, let's play golf again next month. Bahamas? My private jet will pick you and your family up, the penthouse at the $LUXURY hotel is booked for you. And your favorites Natalia and Svetlana will be waiting too".
Beurocrat A: "Company X really botched the contract, like to the point of near criminal, definitely civil, negligince, we should probably go after them in court so we don't set a precedent of allowing this sort of thing"
Bureaucrat B: "Don't be unrealistic, company X donated amount Y to <campaign of person who's party currently heads up the executive branch of the level of government in question>, there's no way that would stick."
And then bureaucrats A and B proceed to spend the rest of their day doing things that actually count toward whatever their performance metrics are.
Exactly, and I like how you painted neither A nor B as evil at all. Which is how things move along so smoothly. Most people don't love the shit, they just put up with it.
