Every industry has sleazebags that lie, cheat, steal. Hell, some of the biggest corporations out there like Bank of America and the cell companies do stuff that is unethical as hell and is intentionally designed to bilk the average customer that isn't sophisticated enough to realize they're being shafted. I think that, as a whole, American society's ethics have really gone downhill considerably in the past ~15 -20 years.

But as for the adult industry specifically... well, I think there are some people in the industry who are extremely upstanding, ethical, good people that would help their fellow webmasters out in a heartbeat, and others who are total sleazebags that would stomp on someone while they're down. I haven't been in the industry for long enough to comment on now vs 10 years ago, but if I were to guess based on my limited knowledge, I'd say that if anything, we are probably moving in the direction of *more* ethics and professionalism in the industry, simply because the industry as a whole is "growing up" (Maxpower excluded) and as there are more and larger companies in the marketplace, stakes are larger and companies will perhaps act more professionally simply because they need to.

Or I could be full of shit