I think you are sadly right. I think some would get a thrill out of humiliating people.
What I’ve witnessed from TSA and airline employees that last few times I’ve flown has outraged me. Last time, there was a man in front of me who missed his 45 min check in time by a few minutes. He tried to explain that he took a wrong turn looking for the car rental return but they made him catch a later flight even though anyone could easily make it from there to anywhere else in that airport within 15 minutes. The slowest walker could. I myself went through hell on this particular flight but that would take a page of writing to tell the story. While waiting in the terminal near my gate (after my flight was delayed by 3 hrs) I overheard two employees just laughing and laughing about a little, old man who just got told he had to wait until a flight the next day because he missed his 45 min check in by a few minutes. This was a different airport so it wasn’t the same man. Apparently, some of these employees take great pleasure in the madness they put us through. Thrills and fun for some of them. I gave them a look of disgust and they could tell I overheard them and looked at me kind of surprised so I loudly made a comment about them. They looked pretty embarrassed and I don’t think they expected someone to loudly call them out on it. Flying has become more painful than going to the dentist for a root canal.