...well, with the exception of reputational damage, which has significant meaning to a lot of people in academic pursuits. There's also the low risk with any especially egregious matter that the tenured professor might lose that status.
Some people value their money. Some people value their brand. Some people value their time. Some people value success. Anyone can be "intimidated by the possibility" of losing what they value, and all of those, among many others, are neither infinitely accessible nor perfectly sustainable.
That's what makes it different.
The rich say, it is not our fault, the corporations are doing that.
The corporations say: We have to do that, because the "market" is demanding higher interest rates!
So, who is to blame: "The Market"?? The politics that do, what the "market" wants, or the workers, that do not work 10% fast every year to secure the rising interest rates?
We have created a system, that allows everybody to say, that it is not his or her fault, it is just the system. The politics also say, it is not their fault, that they fostered the system, because the business professors told them so. The scientists are also not to blame, because it is the "nature" of the money ...
So it is just a law of nature?
No, by nature, societies are better of, when everybody has his share and even when differences exist, some kind of sense for justice is implanted in every human being.
Today's system of zero responsibility has the power to destroy every basis of human societies. Some day, the super-rich will realize that nobody else is left, that cleans their rooms or empties their trash-cans ... while living themselves behind big walls and barb-wire.
They just stay their safe rooms with Tom Perkins waiting for his kristallnacht.
The rising nominal wealth of the richest people since 2008 is largely a result of asset price inflation resulting from low interest rates; the wealthy person is not more wealthy, however, holding a more expensive stock if the dividends and the profits are about the same as they used to be when interest rates were higher and stocks were cheaper, in fact the wealthy person is largely worse off since risk-free income is gone.
As to "unjust and dysfunctional"... aren't we all. At least a rich person can lose money in a variety of scenarios and can be intimidated by this possibility. A tenured academic pays no price whatever he does, so he's more scary that way.
edit: I'm not saying people aren't responsible, just that many of those responsible aren't that rich, and even if you mandate a ceiling on wealth and income, guess what, people will still want to get things done (because you will have a mechanism making them want to, otherwise nothing gets done - of course you can very much choose that, too), and guess what, people will get "their" things done at your expense.
In fact it's people who blame the rich who claim that people aren't responsible (their money/assets - the thing making them rich people on top of just "people" - is responsible.) I'm absolutely saying that people are responsible, and taking money from people will not solve very much.
This is not to say that nothing can be done; jailing wealthy criminals is a good start. A great economist whom nobody will blame for excessive concern for the welfare of the wealthy who'll be glad to show you his list of things to do, but who's nonetheless not "Pikettian", is Dean Baker.