The Bizarre World of Job Interviews: Sometimes You Make the Decision For Them

Here I am again to report on more strange and inscrutable goings on in the world of job interviews. I again appeal to the readership for any input which may lend some semblance of sanity to this but so far I have found none.
It seems to be a common if not popular practice these days to drag prospective employees into interviews not once, not twice but several times. This happened to me once a long time ago and after the third interview they simply told me that the purpose of coming together yet again was to tell me and others that we didn’t get the job – which is the biggest waste of everyone’s time that can be imagined. In other instances it appears that they use this technique to wear down the candidates, even to the point of posing insulting questions or straight out insulting the candidates. An example I have heard is that in some interviews for executive positions they will come out and ask if they can do basic math like addition and subtraction. Now for Pete’s sake if someone can get through college doesn’t that indicate that they can add and subtract? It would not surprise me if they begin to ask if they know how to spell their own name. Given the state of education today I admit that it is lacking in many areas but questions such as these for even grunt laborers are insulting. About thirty years ago I interviewed for a social service job and I was asked to draw a picture of a house. To this day I have no idea what was served by that nor has anyone I have ever asked either.
My theory is that either one of two strategies are in mind during such situations. First, rather than directly make a choice, the interviewers hope to whittle down the number of candidates by dragging them back over and over again which naturally would cause many to just give up or refuse to play such a game. Thus leaving it to a matter of the last man standing gets the job. Anyone who remained who be so browbeaten and have no self respect to have subjected themselves to such repeated indignity that they would not be one to stand up for their own rights and be a perfect lackey in a sweatshop organization. The other possibility is that anyone who remained would have a great deal of stamina and also would be able to withstand a great deal of abuse. Then once they are finally used up they can be discarded.
I know these require stretching the imagination but I am at a loss to find another explanation.
Another one I have recently heard about is that some companies have begun to bring in their prospective employees and have them sit through a video which describes both the company and the job they are applying for. This can be done either individually or en masse. Such a tactic would show the complete disregard for their “human resources” being as it treats it as one would treat a machine, so this will automatically chase some people away and thus “thin out the herd” which makes the job of choosing someone much easier. In effect, the interviewees make the decision themselves simply by dropping out of consideration.
I have to say that if we have come to this point in the work force then we might as well be robots or mindless drones, which as it appears, is what they want anyway.