Oh come on! Atrocious cover art that doesn't represent the story has been an author complaint for eons. That's one anecdote sure - believe it or not. Talk to any author's group however and they'll give you a bunch more.
As far as Publishers doing it all for the authors leaving them free to write. You might want to explain that to Margaret Atwood - who strongly addressed in her Tools of Change keynote address the expectation on the modern author to handle publicity and marketing with little to no help from the publisher.
And I'd venture to guess that Margaret Atwood is probably at the high end of authors attracting Publisher care. The mid-list to no name authors often feel blessed to get their phone calls returned.