The trio’s routine symbiosis prevented self-questioning of their aims.

Evidence

One of the old aims, casting off ballast, had thus been achieved. But the relationships between Horkheimer and Adorno, and Horkheimer and Pollock, were so routine and symbiotic that discussions never arose which called accustomed strategies into question, or which called into question ideaswhich had deteriorated into mere formulasabout the significance and aims of their own activities. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1857