Rejection from one agent is nothing to complain about. I would suggest reading
Slushkiller, with particular attention to item no. 3, "The Context of Rejection," before getting upset about the time taken to read the submission. Your friend was of the opinion that his book was right for the agency; it was possible that the agent, or the assistant doing first triage of submissions, didn't share that opinion. Most agents who are actually selling books are in contact with editors who tell them what they are looking for. The book sent in might have been a certain genre, but not what the editors are looking for, and not something that intrigued the agent sufficiently to follow up and send it out anyway.
Also, most agents only take on a few new projects per year. Yes, they encourage everyone to send in their work, because they don't want to miss anything good. The way for the author to beat those odds is to SUBMIT WIDELY.
I would suggest that your friend, rather than bemoan the state of publishing, submit to a dozen or so more agents. If he receives similar quick responses from those agents, he needs to work on his query letter. If he is getting requests for partials or fulls and getting a lot of rejections, then he needs to work on his manuscript.
It goes without saying that he is following each agency's submission requirements to the letter. If not, yes, instant rejection usually follows.
Rejection (and its close cousin, the bad review) is the hardest thing for an author to get accustomed to, but it is part of the job. That doesn't make it any pleasanter to experience, of course, but it is the truth.