Who are "the folks at the top"? Transit agency executives in California make less than software engineers (though if you put in your time, you get a nice pension to make up for it) - how are these people getting rich? If you mean the politicians, sure, I've already said they're half the problem.
These people are around in SF - see Mohammed Nuru, Rodrigo Santos and so on.
It's hard to live in SF for long without inadvertently touching corruption, even if you actively try to avoid it.
We are talking about American transit workers. I haven’t been to London, but I’ve been amazed by the diligence and efficiency of Japanese transit workers. But they bear zero resemblance to the folks running the transit system in DC, where I live.
I honestly find it incredibly disheartening how rampant and underreported corruption and nepotism are in practically every sector, industry, everything, everywhere, always.
The corrupt are a minority - but they are global, and the impacts of their actions are damaging the entire human race in a very significant fashion, and always have.
Murder, I can forgive.
Corruption, I cannot.
Of course the employees work hard. It’s the vocation they’ve chosen. I’m always amazed by the diligence of TFL and rail employees in the U.K., for instance.
No, the guiding principle for the folks at the top is “so, how can I make money for myself out of this before I fail upwards?”.
I’d wager the SF situation is just the same old looting by the Very Important People who run the show, leaving employees and actual managers with a shoestring and two peanuts to make it all work, while the head honchos bathe in gravy.