You get a lot more freedom and typically a higher pay, but sometimes management uses consultants to be the fall guys or hires consultants to confirm their existing decisions. It takes a lot of business savvy (read: empathy) to understand why you're really being hired as a consultant.
I don't think OP here would be happy consulting. (Just my 2 cents.)
I'm not convinced high profitability leads to better working conditions...
"It only gets worse as you go down the list" means "workplace quality decreases as profitability decreases."
This implies that "workplace quality increases as profitability increases."
"workplace quality increases as profitability increases" is a different way of saying "high profitability leads to better working conditions."
I think detaro understood FD3SA correctly.
I wouldn't go that far. I mean, quite a large number of organizations are dysfunctional, but the mean-spiritedness and overt psychopathy described by the OP is fairly rare, even in Corporate America.
From his description I'd guess that Apple is worse than 95% of places where people work, between the 16-hour days and the bizarre status games.
For you starry eyed youngsters, just remember that this is Apple, the world`s most profitable company. It only gets worse as you go down the list.
Work for yourself. Consulting, the trades and any type of work you can do independently is far superior to dealing with wannabe Machiavellians on whose benevolence your paycheck depends.
Get out of the corporate world, and do anything else. The sky is the limit.