the girl next door - "...The higher the position, the greater burden in the mind when doubts creep in. 'The harder they fall' as it were... The GB are painfully ordinary men playing the only game they know at the highest level in full recognition, or at the very least cognitive dissonance, that everything they believe in is in fact complete bullshit.... No doubt each one of them quietly struggles with their own crisis of conscience..."
You're partly right.
After long observation and thought on the subject, I've come to the conclusion that...
a) ...they know it's wrong... but believe it's true... at the same time (it's called "compartmentalization", and career politicians are particularly skilled at it), and...
b) ...the WTS leadership is able to function that way because (I suspect) authoritarian leaders don't actually feel cognitive dissonance.