Have capitalism ever worked as advertised?

I remember reading the manifesto of the pure capitalism, "Atlas shrugged", several years ago, when I was only about to enter the Real World. The image of smart and progressive fighting against the conservative system built upon the mediocrity was very appealing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged

http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/R/Real-World.html

Nowdays. I am a programmer in business-to-business company. Once I asked my boss what exactly is the business purpose of the project I was assigned on. The answer started with words "You see, accounting people of our clients are not very smart" and continued with explanation of what exactly they do wrong. Purpose of the project is to work-around these people continuing doing wrong things, since teaching them do thing correctly considered impractical.

Crux of capitalism today is not production of some real goods like high-quality steel, it is enabling people to stay uneducated, incompetent or plainly stupid. Suprisingly, this is true even in business-to-business world, with neither state goverment nor uninitiated public are involved. Galt's Gulch failed. Was it real in first place?