You make leadership and authority sound like roles to assure homogenization, order, rules enforcement, compliance, uniformity,  and the oft-false god of clarity. You see allowance of debate and "confusion" as a weakness when it might well sometimes be a leadership strength. 

Often authentic and courageous leadership and authority recognize, value, and allow (even encourage) nuance, disorder, diversity, subtleties, ambiguities, and freedoms. Accountability might just be about how well a leader assures conscience-based  religious freedoms to individuals as well as to groups. "He kept us in line" is not the legacy of a courageous or effective leader--though it could be the legacy of an efficient leader.

Refusal to, say, answer cardinal-demanded "yes/no" questions might not reflect your expectations of "authority," but true leadership and authority TRUSTS rigorous discernment-based learning more so than demands unthinking compliance.