Sure it's not nice to see and hear but it's a normal thing in pretty much every job. Unless you all work in a dreamland.
j/k of course, but sure you ass will get beaten no matter what you will lose in the end.
The hierarchy may be such in theory, but in this case it goes Bale than everyone else. He is the movie as his popularity is pretty much unmatched after The Dark Knight. If anyone on that set could get fired, it sure as hell won't be Bale.
Yes you are right, he is doing that because he is the whole movie project, for this reason he did that, because he is an asshole, he probably forgot what he was or could be before or without this fame.

