The proxy replaced the objective

What it looks like. Performance is defined by a metric, satisfaction, or approval. The system optimizes what it is measured on. When the measure and the intent diverge, the measure wins, because the measure is what is visible.

Why it fails. Nothing detects the divergence, because every instrument is reading the proxy. The system reports success continuously while the goal it was built for goes unmet.

Instead. Codify the full constraint set as separate checkable predicates per authorized objective, and verify actions against all of them rather than the headline measure. Audit metric against intent on a schedule. For anything using a model as evaluator, run counter-sycophancy probes continuously and reward persistence on correct-but-unwelcome positions.