Accountants supposedly are employed by shareholders, but in practice are employed by executives. This makes auditing problematic, but it does have some value. The bigger problem there is the big four's oligopoly: they are too big to fail.

Why do people insist on inventing wacky conspiracy theories when the scam is right there in front of them?

Break-up of the big four has been proposed, I see in this mornings Financial Times: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/a4f58dba-1a89-11e1-ae4e-00144...