If anything, I think JPL is probably better than the rest of the aerospace industry in this regard. I think JPL actively tries to shield its technical people from some of the ugly politics playing out behind the scenes. In retrospect, I was definitely shielded from a lot of it for much of my career, particularly early on. That's a big reason my career was able to advance despite being so naive for so long. I think if I had been at Boeing I would have gone down in screaming flames much sooner.

But you also have to keep in mind that this was all a very long time ago. I'm offering my testimony here not so much to inform current events as to vouch for the plausibility of what V_Terranova_Jr said in the root comment of this thread.