This is the economic model they operate within. It’s dangerous to paint systemic issues as bad individual actors because it gives false relief when individuals happen to appear dealt with or reformed but the structural issues and powers remain. See for example the false relief of On the Waterfront’s ending (an incredibly and subversively anti-worker film for this reason)
It's both. There's a tendency to excuse bad behavior because they "have to" due to systemic forces, but the system does not have them at gunpoint. Businesses in this system can and do survive without being ruthless and amoral right up to the edges of legality, even when they don't reap the rewards of a positive image because they decline to publicize such small integrities. You're right, however, that the system is the bigger problem.
But also, these people do have a choice. They could work elsewhere, they could be more ethical. It is more that the system picks and rewards people like this.
What is often forgotten are many people who reject positions and situations and systems like this. And work elsewhere, for less money and less power, because they made active choice to not be like this.
