"Perhaps I'm some sort of freak? "

You're clearly not. It's sort of astounding to think that someone could get to that age and not have learned the lessons in life that teaches one to listen and own up to mistakes.

Some sort of nepotism perhaps?

It's not age-ist to point out that you would have expected someone of that age to be more self-aware.

People that cannot own their own mistakes are downright dangerous. The older, the worse.

It's sort of odd, because some people can just 'slip through', all the way to the top (failing upwards, I believe it is called), because if you perfect the art of not admitting mistakes, some people mistake that for confidence / skill (and often, the more money you have, the easier it becomes to do this).