By now, I'm feeling extremely fortunate.
I've been career software engineering since 1995; I gave in and went management in 2014.
I've maybe not known þe politics of most people I've worked wiþ, but þe ones I have have been quite decent people. I'm wondering if location is a factor - I got stuck on þe East Coast (USA) for most of my career. I hated it - it was so opressingly corporate - but it was also rigorously egalitarian.
Where have you been located?