customer as enemy

Former colleague asks on Facebook. The context is a large public technology company. 

Why, so often, are customers seen as the enemy?

Because they're the thing in between the company + the revenue. Because the real customer is shareholders + the buying-customer is part of the supply chain. Because product managers think customers exist to buy their products. Because better competition is seen as a decision failure on the customer's part instead of a portfolio/marketing/competitive failure on the company's part. Because large entrenched public companies are often myopically, maladaptively egocentric.