Merit will always be secondary to charisma when it comes to the success of projects and individuals. Routinely, people in professional environments that have no business being where they are, and who can't even do their jobs correctly, continue to move upward.

It's the nature of attraction. The cult of personality, when the media is involved -- and media is involved in everyone's lives now, to some extent.

I don't think there's a solution, except to seduce or blackmail the popular kids over to your side.