The problem I've consistently seen with incivility as a tactic is that, the longer someone is around, the more of it they can get away with.

Administrators and other high-profile, long-term editors should be held to the highest standards of civility, but the enablers just make excuses for them, and lackeys tend to form around them, stalling, preventing, or just complicating any attempt to deal with their behavior.

I got really sick of meeting rude, or even abusive, editors, only to realize they were admins, too. They have long dragged down the project as a whole, but no-one ever seems interested in actually doing anything about the problem.

Matt