I think what you guys are seeing and describing are the after effects of an organization that has been entrenched in narcotics trafficking for decades. Over time what became most important to the organization was narcotics supply, transportation, and distribution, and the laundering and reinvestment of those funds.
Giuseppe Settacasi was boss of the Agrigento mafia, he was partners with Luciano. Lucky was concerned with business, not really all the ritualistic symbolism and militaristic territorial control. Consider that influence he must have had on the succeeding generation of Mafiosi from there. Think about Luciano doing business with Jewish gangsters, guys like Owney Madden, Irish and Sottish whiskey merchants, Cuban racketeers in the Caribbean, Bumpy Johnson, French Corsicans. Then look at Vito with Wooley the street gang boss, Boucher the biker gang boss, French Canadian gangsters, Spanish gangsters, Irish West End mob, Asian Big Circle boys, Lebanese hashish merchants, Colombian and Cuban cocaine suppliers, Swiss bankers. Your ability to procure narcotics, transport narcotics, distribute narcotics, these things start to take precedence over where you were born in Sicily, or how many made men you have under you.
Drugs change everything; They don't recognize established hierarchies or whatever specialized expertise you might have like experience or whatever. Where you normally have the boss, underboss and consigliere, it becomes, the guy with the connect, the guy with the distribution, and the guy that can put both of em together, these become the guys calling the shots. These "Sollozos" wield incredible influence in families ba cause narcotics can actually support an entire family. "I've got 20 years experience in labor racketeering", " Well, I got 50 keys, we'll make 25 million", see what I mean? It's like all that shit goes out the window.

Look at this mafia heroin ring;

At the end of August, or early September 1956, Cantellops attended a meeting at the home of Rocco Mazzie, at 2332 Seymour Avenue in the Bronx, where plans were made for extending the distribution of narcotics.

Earlier, the same evening Cantellops drove to the same German restaurant on East 86th Street with Joe Evola, Ormento, Carmine Galante and Andimo Pappadio, a capo in the Luchese family, and a man close to John Ormento and Genovese.

Galante was with the Bonanno family, along with Evola; Ormento, and Pappadio were with the Luchese’s, and Mazzie was tied into the crime family known to-day as the Gambino family, run then, by Albert Anastasia.
Couple things, notice how they overlook the Puerto Rican Cantellops, because of his perceived ability to open up a distribution center in the Bronx, he woulda been like "Carlito Brigante" basically. Also notice how the traditional family lines and hierarchies are blurred. Imagine a beef happens, what boss decides what? Is it going to be the family boss, or the guy controlling the drugs, or drug territory calling the shots? Here you have soldiers, capos, under bosses, it's like they are part of a separate organization, within the mafia. That why Carlo felt compelled to take down ALL these guys...

Here is an excerpt from The Sixth Family, illustrating what I mean....
https://books.google.com/books?id=0ZygQJ...ers&f=false
It's why Nick Rizzuto COULDNT take orders from Violi. Besides the Sicilian, Calabrian divide, he has his own connect, his own contacts to get the product in the states, his own crew to move it, and his own laundry service. He must have been like, " What the fuck do I even need the guy for, to take a cut off the top, cause what, he's Boss?" Fuck that!!
It's what got George from Canada killed. This " Sollozo" type, because he was controlling the flow of drugs into New York, started to feel like he could tell the boss things about running the family, and clearly he thought that because he was such a valuable earner, was untouchable. Also, as,it states in the Sixth family, he probably didn't see himself as a Bonnano soldier, more like Vito's representative in New York.
Here is another excerpt, from Gommorah, on another Italian crime family that operates more like a cartel than a traditional Costa Nostra clan, also it shows that all these organizations require is loyalty, and this is provided by family, also shows how things like experience, prestige, and age are impediments to the operation..
“The sums Di Lauro’s managers turned over were still astronomical, but getting progressively smaller. Over the long term this sort of practice would strengthen some and weaken others, and eventually—as soon as a group gathered enough organizational and military force—they’d give Paolo Di Lauro the shove. Not just some stiff competition, but the big shove, the one you don’t get up from, a shove with lead in it. So Cosimo ordered everyone be put on salary. He wanted them all to depend on him. The decision ran counter to his father’s ways, but it was necessary to protect his business, his authority, his family. No more loose ties, with everyone free to decide how much to invest, what type and quality of drugs to put on the market. No more liberty and autonomy within a multilevel corporation. Salaried employees. Some were saying 50,000 euros a month. An extraordinary amount, but a salary nevertheless. A subordinate role. The end of the entrepreneurial dream, replaced by a manager’s job. And the administrative revolution didn’t end there. Informants testify that Cosimo also imposed a generational turnover. Immediate rejuvenation”
“management, so no executives over thirty. The market doesn’t make concessions for the appreciation of human assets. It doesn’t make concessions for anything. You have to hustle to win. Every bond, be it affection, law, rights, love, emotion, or religion, is a concession to the competition, a stumbling block to success. There’s room for all that, but economic victory and control come first. Old bosses used to be listened to out of respect, even when they proposed outdated ideas or gave ineffective orders; their decisions counted precisely because of their age. And age was what posed the biggest threat to the leadership of Paolo Di Lauro’s offspring.
So now they on the same level; no appealing to a mythical past, previous experience, or respect owed. Everyone had to get by on the strength of his proposals, management abilities, or charisma.”
So basically, the only "made". Guys that seem to matter, are the blood relations, and they have been acting like a cartel for so long, that the organization both in structure and values, reflects this reality, any thoughts?