I want to chime in before the thread gets locked. I want to preface this by saying that my goal of my post is not to sound unsympathetic to the abusive experiences some of our players have endured.
The root problem of this game is how much OOC relationship between players and staff effects the in-game playing experience and that is probably not likely to change because it is deeply rooted in both the game culture and game design.
If someone has a good relationship with a staff member, the game experience is like a table top game costumed to your personal preferences. When the relationship is non-existent, your experience is limited to the fairness of the code and whatever RP you find with other players. When the relationship is bad, then people experience an environment of disrespected, unfair punishments or having their characters stored/killed. It is this game design and culture that has now allowed us to add a new level to the staff-player relationship metric which is now toxic, so toxic that it has gone beyond the confines of just staff complaints to possibly one that should be dealt with by local law enforcement and civil/criminal courtrooms.
As someone with no relationship to staff or the players, the game I play and experience is not the same game many people complaining about abusive staff experience. When people complain about another player getting more stuff than them from staff, in terms of skills, spells, plots and attention, I can only scratch my head and get back to foraging. That said, I feel many people here would rather continue a culture that promotes game designs that require fostering good relationships with staff member (karma, sponsored roles, special application, ooc knowledge and plot involvement). This especially becomes true for people who have had made life long friends or even met their spouses through this community.
To answer the original question, unless the community is willing to become more anonymous to staff and give up the good that comes from staff relationship including the special treatment certain players get, then it is equally hard to track and stop the bad that comes out of it when relationships sour. Sadly, it seems the complaints only start when the graavy train has stopped. I honestly have no idea if staff or players truely want policies and design to change so that both favoritism and abuse disappears from the game.