Tucker and Edmondson's (2003) research on hospital process failures gives a useful distinction here. First-order problem solving works around a failure so the immediate task gets done. Second-order problem solving addresses the cause and tells the people who can change the system. The first keeps work moving and leaves the organization unaware of the failure. Repenning and Sterman (2001) describe a related capability trap, where the pressure to work harder crowds out the improvement work that would prevent the same problems. I would say dependability becomes a problem when it hides information that leadership needs. The project still has commitments to keep, so the immediate fix is usually right. The second step is the one that often gets skipped: reporting the cause and its cost to the person with authority to change the process. I would be interested in how others raise a recurring failure without it being heard as blame.
References
Repenning, N. P., & Sterman, J. D. (2001). Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened: Creating and sustaining process improvement. California Management Review, 43(4), 64–88.
Tucker, A. L., & Edmondson, A. C. (2003). Why hospitals don't learn from failures: Organizational and psychological dynamics that inhibit system change. California Management Review, 45(2), 55–72.
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