More likely, someone told them that readers are only interested in action, and if they want people to read through their boring bureaucratic nightmare, they'd have to force in fight scenes everywhere. Backfired wonderfully.
I could be wrong though, obviously. Only way to know would be to ask.
what's unfortunate is that the author genuinely sucks at writing action scenes, it was sorta endearing the first couple times- like if you're watching a baby cousin try to help with chores, and now this is what, the 30th time or so an action scene has been shoehorned in? I can tolerate the flat characterizations but why does this story need fight scenes