Year Five of Condo Life in the City

I am now in year five of Condo Life in the City.  The pluses are the wonderful location, the beautiful ever-changing view of two rivers and a slice of a great lake, the lock-and-leave convenience, the absence of yard-work, snow removal, home maintenance and repair (but not completely of course), and general simplification of life when that is becoming more important.

The negatives include a dysfunctional condo Associaton Board that does not understand its own Bylaws and Rules and/or ignores them at every opportunity; offensive and unnecessary rules; fines that are assessed arbitrarily and in excessive amount; tyrannical attempts to control residents by the Residents' Committee and the Board (two out of three positions on each are overlapping so two people control everything about community life and one is a minion and the other a bully so guess who is "in charge"?), several commercial spaces in the condo that are vacant; too low a budget to keep things really nice and clean; and too high condo fees and taxes to feel that living here is a good value as compared to the peace and quiet of the suburbs.

I sometimes feel that part of the negatives list is due to a combination of ignorance and naivete of the volunteers who earnestly believe they have the time and skill to take charge of a large condominium but clearly and painfully don't.

We have a large professional management company under contract but they claim they must do exactly as they are told by the bully running the Board, whether it is clearly a violation of the Bylaws and Rules or otherwise inappropriate or unethical.  Is that the normal position of a professional condo management company?  What do you say about that?