The Detroit Free Press carried a novel, even if slightly unconvincing, article tracing the strange saga of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is facing perjury charges and is currently out of jail on bail yet still refuses to resign his office, to the rise of the American CEO:

Blame it on our infatuation with the cult of the charismatic CEO and ultimately on the infatuation of the charismatic CEO with himself.

Iacocca, the glib automotive icon who led Chrysler Corp. through two near-bankruptcies, and Welch, legendary boss of General Electric from 1981-2001, were the first rock-star CEOs. Then Microsoft's Bill Gates and Apple's Steve Jobs ushered in the digital age.

So taken was the American public by these superstars of business that people started asking, "Why can't we run government like we run our private-sector businesses?"

[In 2002], a book was published titled "Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs" by Rakesh Kurana.

Kurana traced the rise of the American CEO from anonymity to superstar in the last two decades of the 20th Century.

"Previously, CEOs were about as well-known as their chauffeurs," he wrote. "But something happened when Lee Iacocca was credited with single-handedly saving an American icon. Most people forgot about the $2-billion federally guaranteed loan to bail out Chrysler, or the United Auto Workers' givebacks. Iacocca made other CEOs look bland -- there was even talk of drafting him for president.

"The image of a CEO changed from being a capable administrator to a leader -- a motivating, flamboyant leader with a new task. In the late 1980s and early '90s, business tried to redefine itself; it was no longer about the profane task of making money, but concerned with vision, values, mission -- essentially religious terms."