Our current economy allows for far more favoritism than the manufacturing economy of the past. Basically there are situations where everyone knows one guy sucks and another guy is competent but it can’t be proven even though everyone knows it. They still go with the favored guy.
It’s created a plausible deniability that allows mediocre people to use nepotism to gain power and to cast the people who are actually doing a good job in a bad light. This could lead to major problems down the road.