I doubt the amount of shady CEOs is any worse than it was at times in the past (the 80s being known for the "Gordon Gekko" type CEOs immediately come to mind). I think it just feels like there's more corruption because of a combination of us consuming more media, quicker and recency bias.
1. The numbers are a magnitude larger, instead of 100's of millions we're talking billions for the individual players.
* Today's villains are far more disingenuous about their motives. In the 80's they unapologetically embraced greed for greed's sake, none of this false "making the world a better place" BS.
We're in an investee's market right now. Investors are throwing large amounts of money at anything that might have a positive return. This gives the founders/CEOs/etc. a lot more power to get away with this kind of stuff. If their behavior scares off one investor, there will still be a line waiting to give them money.
When things swing the other way, and not as much money is floating around waiting to be invested, investors will be able to hold the investees to higher standards.
