It is only when people genuinely love the tree that they work towards growing it to bear sweeter fruits. When people love themselves more than they love the tree, they fight with each other when they perceive their self interest being conflicted ... finally that tree has to die. Just a matter of time.
Thus when a leader perceives first signs of conflicts in his team, he cannot gloss over it. The first time a leader hears tale-tattling from one team member about the other, he needs to put an end to it.
Small conflicts when not handled in time, grow into larger disputes and then into a full-fledged wars of siloed behaviours in the organisation which slowly leads to the total collapse of the organisation. No company can grow or fight competition when internal energies are channelised to fight each other within than fight competition in the market.
Who is to blame ? The conflicting members ? Partly. The ineffective leader who preferred to be a silent spectator conniving the smaller conflicts ?
Completely.