Anyhow its especially prevalent in software. Just search Google for "why we switched from".
If anyone is thinking of writing yet another "why we switched from X to Y" blog post, I can save you the effort of a long blog post explaining the reasons. It's because "the old software was shit and the new is fricking awesome!" You don't need to explain the details.
I mean everything. Almost literally everything.
The most recent thing I can think of is seating arrangements.
At my current workplace seating arrangements are mostly random. Someone here had the idea that we should group people by seniority so that people with related issues will be in close proximity.
However, at my previous workplace we grouped by seniority, and someone had the idea that we should mix it up so that project teams would be in close proximity.
[edit]: And lets not forget outsourcing vs. insourcing, grouping departments by geography vs. grouping departments by business type, etc., etc.
i often wonder if they actually believe what they are saying, or are just ... going with the flow and doing their best to look busy
They probably believe it. I fully expect that I've actually done it before without even realising.