While I have sometimes mentioned academic pathologies in this blog, I have not focused on them. Comparatively little on racial, gender, age discimination or preferences. Shenanigans in departments: votes not about the candidate but about freeing up tenure lines for someone else, tit for tat voting, departments being eliminated or combined, deans going directly to provosts to reverse a decision (sometimes to make a positive decision), methodological differences turned into quality judgment differences, etc. It surely helps if you are someone's "boy," or protege; it hurts if no one attached to you.

Committees may change mid-stream, you may be caught in a maelstrom that has nothing to do with you at all.

If you wish to find many examples of the pathologies, just go to the AAUP website or publications or The Chronicle of Higher Education.

One might have administrative and legal recourse. A local or national campaign of supporters can sometimes help, especially if it is led by indisputably elite scholars. Still, I believe it is better to have a Plan B, a different sort of job, another university, ... : Living well is the best revenge. If they don't treat you well, go off and publish well, and say only nice things about them or suggest atrophy. Paul Samuelson always said that the Harvard Economics Department was not ready for his sort of work, although he did his doctorate there, rather than discuss their antisemitism. Hence he was at MIT. (Berkeley did not hire Feynman after WWII because of antisemitism (or at least Birge's) or that it had "enough" Jews already in its physics department. So Feynman went to Caltech.) You are unlikely to be so distinguished, but there is no reason not to pursue your career with greater energy. Judith Shklar, only made a regular professor at Harvard political science after many years as part-timer, said that she never felt majorized by any members of the department, and appreciated the extra time available from not attending meetings to do her work and bring up her family.

And if you find yourself stuck, with no academic job prospects, think more widely. It won't be the same, but you might well be happier. Foundations, journalism, your secret dream, or writing books at night while your dayjob is as a waiter--whatever. What's nice about scholarly work is that you can enter and dominate the conversation if your work is outstanding no matter what your position. Of course, those with positions have it easier.