How to bad leaders get power? how do they protect the teacher's pet? They use skip levels to collect gossip. your skip level leader asks you to tattle on people by asking questions like tell me something good and bad about everyone you work with (a good leader would not do this). then they take the information they collect from all skip levels, and manipulate it as they please. is there a trend of people reporting the teacher's pet? skip level leaders discredit these people immediately.
this approach doesnt improve the team, foster trust, or create camaraderie. Its purposely done so they can pull strings and manipulate situations they normally would not have power over.
if you have a leader like this, slam them as hard as you can in the Pulse survey to get them laid off, and then find a new job. if you get laid off, that's better. collect a severance check and get out of this place.