One of the most brilliant, if not the most brilliant, researchers into the behavior of executives -
Sidney Finkelstein - of Dartmouth - has written what is probably the most important book on the subject of smart executives who fail. He has not documented the mere average failures, but the failures of people who are successes - men who are the smartest guys they know. The book
Why Smart Executives Fail is ably summarized in his article
On the habits of the spectacularly unsuccessful - but the book goes into deeper detail on case studies and gives a greater insight.
It goes without saying, that of every industry in the world not based in Hollywood, politics is the most prone to exactly these failures.