That sure sounds like scapegoating as I’ve known it.
There’s also the corollary: having to sit on subordinates’ good ideas until sufficient time has passed for plausible deniability when you implement them and take all the credit. I’ve never heard the term for that.
Hmmmm…that’s a good suggestion. Thanks!
Yeah…it was really bothering me! Even if its not the right word to use, it is a relief to have the word I was trying to remember!
Standard Corporate Procedure.
Cultures that rely upon self-promotion always resort to mutual denunciation.
speciousness?
fallaciousness?
chicanery?
sophistry?
I wonder why it red-lined fallaciousness?
“passing the buck”
“weaseling”
No, that’s not the word you were trying to remember.
“Revisionist history” is a little better.
Am I the only one who thought this thread had something to do with a crossword puzzle?
Brings to mind there was a time in Hollywood where several sitcoms used the same technique - replay some event in flashback over and over from the point of view of several characters, each narrating their version, each embellishing the story and altering assorted facts to make themselves the hero and not the person at fault. (I specifically remember an episode of Odd Couple that did this, but I remember several other sitcoms about the same time)
Rashomoning. They did it on All in the Family too
It’s not gaslighting, but people are calling any deception gaslighting now. They don’t understand the origins of the word, and even if explained they don’t get it. So might as well call it gaslighting now.
That’s what I call a sticky situation.
spurious
spuriousness
‘Confabulation’ is a great word which almost fits the OP, though it seems to only refer to the unknowing fabrication of past events by those with brain injuries and such, in order to maintain a coherent mental conception of reality.
Can i suggest calling it out as ‘blame-shifting’ or ‘revisionism’?
Concerning your second choice,…you might want to read the OP. 
Yes, it might actually help for me to do that occasionally, but I think it just delays people from receiving my unqualified wisdom direct from my brain.