Okay, not edited and not really reviewed -- writing from work:
In the beginning, wizzes/arches directly interfered with mud play on a regular
basis. Zaps weren't uncommon, certain wizzes would charge you for fingering
them, and charge more for giving them tells, etc. These days, the wizzes have
switched to a much more hands-off mentality; they code the game and features
and rulesets with the idea/hopes that the game will self-govern. This is an
admirable goal -- it is the only way to make rule administration scalable, and
also fair to all mudders. However, there are many aspects of the game which do
not have automagic rule enforcement (very few aspects actually do)...it seems
that the mud administration is in some sort of limbo state. We have switched
mentality and rules and planning such that the game would self-enforce, but we
haven't yet implemented things for this.

I think that there will be a certain percentage of the population who are
cheaters/minmaxers/whatever which are the seeming unwanted people...the ones
who rape areas, etc...this will always happen, and as the player base grows,
there will only be more contention for areas to rape. Without active rule
enforcement, we will never 'discipline' these folks, and never get rid of
them...so expecting the players to 'handle it themselves' or expecting the
problem to go away simply won't happen. Personal exp-tune is a step in the
right direction, and rape-prot is also a step in the right direction (though
IMHO, maybe not the right step), but we have a ways to go before we can get to
the point where wizzes can sit back, code, and not involve themselves in the
interpersonal parts of the mud. Sometimes, you just need to get out that
zapping wand, the whip of player control, and go wild.

I don't pretend to have actual solutions to the auto-management aspects of the
game, but I do think that the game still needs lots of manual-management for
the time being...