i feel like it's more than that really; people at large can't wrap their heads around non-hierarchical things. the biggest example i personally have to point to is that the game development group that i'm a part of doesn't really have a pecking order, we're a collective, a hivemind.
yet there's always this consistent thread of 'so who's The Boss. who's Mister Manager here.' - especially when it comes to our players, this goes doubly so if they're not very happy with us.
A constant drumbeat of propaganda leads to this. People understand this if given the opportunity but there's permanent, constant noise supporting the idea that hierarchy and capitalist domination is not only natural but the only game in town. It doesn't help, of course, that in the particular context of free software there's an infinite supply of right wing "libertarian" dipshits who will happily regurgitate incoherent recapitulations of the already stupid and incoherent Cathedral and the Bazaar.
