Has the apprentice been nailed to the floor?

I've watched pretty much every series of The Apprentice (the UK version with Sir Alan Sugar) and to an extent have enjoyed them all. I've got a horrible feeling that The Apprentice is going down the same route that Dragons Den and Big Brother seemed to take -that is getting contestants that are more interested in controversy and fame than anything else.

What I don't like about this current series is that there doesn't seem to be any form of comradery among the contestants, all of whom seem to be overly cut-throat and self-absorbed, this is of course to be expected in any competition but at times it's a little OTT.

I can't remember which episode it was but recently I was amazed that ?Claire refused to help the project manager with the pitch. Ok I completely agree that he should have asked her to do it in the first place but that could easily be put down to big headedness or stubbornness, surely she wants the team to have the best chance at winning?

What's worse is that seems to be playing the TV game not the business game, not firing clearly incompetent candidates and instead keeping them in and teaming them up with their nemesis'. that was clear from almost the first episode which IMNSHO detracts massively from what the show is about.

Putting the rivalry aside for a moment, what's even more concerning is the quality of the candidates. I know a few people have blogged about how stupid some of them are and mocked how they're surely not Britain's best business minds (ignoring the fact that if they were Britain's best then why on earth are they going for a job only paying £100k) but come on! I'm not the sharpest tool in the toolbox but even I know that sending cards to "save the environment" is a ludicrous idea and don't even get me started on getting some guy down the market to "bless" a chicken...

Personally, I feel that Sir Alan (who appears to have come the government's entrepreneur advisor) is setting an extremely bad example for how to do business (and I've felt that from previous episodes where he criticises the losing team for not blagging something for free -ok you can do it a couple of times, but blagging won't really create a sustainable business). Sadly, this mix of candidates really doesn't do anything to improve that opinion, it'll be interesting to see how things pan out...