Everybody loves to boo and hiss a corporate villain; especially amid scandal. Five years ago the hunt was on for baddies in banking. Then when BP caused a terrible oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, there was more hand-wringing – and a search for villains.

Now, the chase is on again, this time at General Motors. Last week Anton Valukas, a former federal prosecutor, released a 315-page report on the carmaker’s scandalous failure to withdraw faulty ignition switches from several of its models, even though some employees knew about the technical problems for a decade.

Before the report emerged, some observers expected that Mr Valukas would reveal dastardly villains. After all, it was claimed, it was hard to imagine that corporate mistakes on this scale could have occurred for so long – and caused many needless deaths – without deliberate malfeasance.