Just about every congregation I have known has had cliques. When we first started going to meetings when I was a teenager this was made worse by the fact my parents would only allow me to have 'upbuilding, spiritual' association which was mostly the very cliquey and bitchy elders' daughters who did not like me as I was reasonably good looking and therefore unwelcome competition. My mom found out years later by chance how badly I had been treated on one particular occasion and was very upset about it.
Another congregation we went to when I had a young baby was just about as bad. There were a couple of lovely sisters (just humble publishers) I could call friends but most of the others (mainly elders and MS wives) were so engrossed in their clique they didn't even notice when I was ill and in need of some support. That congregation also had a strong male clique, which my husband was offered the dubious privilege of joining but he chose not to suck up to them, they were so pompous and full of themselves it was sickening. They were like a bunch of schoolboys the way they treated hubby because he didn't join their little gang, and punished him by not giving him 'priviledges' at the meetings
I could go on and on with my bad experiences involving JW cliques