Yes, and the mechanism for this is no mystery. Academia is a political game. Your peers vote to give you tenure. They vote, anonymously, on whether to publish your papers. They vote, anonymously, on whether to give you grants. If you want smart students, you have to recruit them. Et cetera.

You do have to be smart, but you also have to make friends.

(And, let me hasten to add, there's nothing particularly wrong with this. The point of academia is to build knowledge by connecting with your students and your peers: Teaching, and learning. Socializing is the name of the game. If you want to hide in your closet being an isolated cranky genius you don't need the university, and vice versa. Well, except maybe for the libraries. There's a reason why research libraries have the reputation of being filled with slightly crazy cranky people. ;)