Because management in large, dysfunctional (read: typical) companies is a game about promising to ship things to people further up your chain, people are broadly incentivized to say that everything has shipped no matter what has happened unless it is impossible to lie about this easily.

What ends up developing gradually is a network of people who are selected for their ability to support convenient social narratives, and if you’re going to be negative at all, you aren’t allowed in the club. When someone is asked to be a team player, what is really being said is “shut the fuck up and we’ll let you into the club”. That is precisely why people use phrases like team player — it isn’t hard to pick something less clumsy and upsetting, but then you might not realize it’s a threat which is the whole point!