My wife is currently in residency, I'm a professional in another industry, so I have somewhat of an impartial perspective on this.

Much of the culture in medicine is malignant and just stupid (yes, malignant is the term used for more malicious programs, not all are like this). It's stupid because the culture produces poorer quality doctors and inevitably worse outcomes for patients. As I indicated, I have a fair amount of professional experience in a number of different places. Perhaps I've just been lucky, but I've never experienced nor would I stand for the level of sheer unprofessional bullshit my wife has to put up with. Backstabbing, infighting, verbal abuse, and people that will throw you under the bus in an instant. All this from people that are supposed to be teaching you.

Part of it is tradition, the "hazing" of students goes back decades. Staying up days at a time was a badge of honor, unsurprisingly there was a fair amount of cocaine use. Former residents brag about how they used to hack timeclocks so they could violate work hours. The ridiculous hours are stupid too, I wouldn't trust myself to drive or do my taxes after working 12+ hours, much less make life and death decisions. It's quite understandable how medical errors are the 3rd leading cause of death. Part of this is also the extremely hierarchical and, for the lack of a better term, "alpha" nature of the culture. You can't be seen to admit mistakes.

Some of this is just the nature of the beast. Medicine attracts many "type A" people, and a lot of gunners. People who have been competing most of their lives to get where they are, view everything as zero-sum, and can't turn it off.