"In other words, owners can legitimately claim they are not responsible for the bad actions of a corporation because they have handed over the operation to professional managers. And managers can legitimately claim they are not responsible for the bad actions of a corporation because they are not the owners. That, for the rest of society, spells Catch-22."

That is excellent.

A. Smith did, however, extol the division of labor, which is the basis of capitalism (which is best defined, I think, as mass production of goods and services for sales in geographically extended markets).

As it happens, I have developed a solution to the problem of the existing economy as system as called for in this essay: "For Crying Out Loud, Accept That A Solution Actually Exists" (a "3 min read" — including options for further reading — here in Medium).