At the same time, the writers were heavily involved in creation, especially John Broome, on the Flash and Green Lantern; and Gardner Fox, on Adam Strange, Justice League and Hawkman and Atom.

In regards to Schwartz, if you read Mike Richardson and Steve Duin's Comic Books: Between the Panels, there are several quotes from Gil Kane about Julie and some of the credit he took, and his general demeanor. Let's put it this way, Kane was not flattering. So, there are people who would dispute Schwartz's direct role in the creation of characters and stories or the level of his role. As with most creative things, success has many fathers and failure is an orphan.

Arnold Drake is another important writer there.

The problem with the credit for some of the writers boils down to politics, as much as ego. There was an attempt to form a guild or union at DC and those involved found themselves fired, blackballed or pushed out. Now, it isn't exactly cut and dried, as there is a mix of the attempt to organize for better pay, medical benefits and partial ownership of things they created. Irwin Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz tried to keep the writer rates low and tried to play one against the other, when they tried to get raises. That led to efforts to unioninze, with a group that included Arnold Drake, Gardner Fox, John Broome, Ed Herron, and Otto Binder, with some others in and out. Drake was one of the real instigators. Drake was pretty much fired and went to work for Marvel. Broome was living in Paris, but his DC output dwindled to nothing. Fox disappeared from DC, too, as did Binder, though he also had a daughter who was killed in a car crash. They tried to get the artists involved, to create a united front; but, Kurt Schaffenberger was the only one deeply involved, out of solidarity with Binder. Carmine Infantino attended a couple of meetings, but was wooing Liebowitz for the Publisher job, according to Bob Haney. The artists got pretty good rates, especially in relation to the writers, so they didn't join up. Ageism was a big factor in the writers being pushed out, as most had been working since the 40s and many of the editors wanted younger talent, with Joe Orlando saying he didn't want writers over 35 years-old, according to Drake. In 1968, it came to a head and most of those guys were soon out and you see the first wave of young fan writers, like Mike Friedrich and Denny O'Neil, then guys like Steve Skeates, who Dick Giordano brought over from Charlton, along with Steve Ditko and Jim Aparo (and Frank McLaughlin). Bill Finger and Bob Haney had been involved and Finger was pretty well pushed out, but alcoholism was also a factor in his decline. Haney stuck around to the early-mid 70s.

The editors were basically feudal lords and their creative teams were pretty much their serfs, working exclusively for them, until after this event, in 1968 (more or less). The influx of new editors and young talent changed a lot of that, as did the purge of the writers, around this time. Weisinger was pretty universally described as a miserable SOB. Kanigher had a massive ego and was not well liked by many and Schwartz had his detractors, too, though some, like Elliot Maggin, said he was blunt and brutal, but he, personally, never had a problem with it. Schiff is the one I have read least about, in terms of personality and professional relationships. There was an old story, largely debunked, of Alex Toth being disrespected and receiving a power play from either Julie Schwartz or Robert Kanigher (I have heard both), about withholding a paycheck due him, for a job and he dangled them out a window, until he got his check. Like I say, it was largely debunked; but, I have heard other stories about Schwartz and Kanigher making people wait for checks while they played cards, just to show them who was boss.

This was really the end of the "Mad Men" era of cigar-chomping, testosterone-fueled, good-'ol-boy's-club editors... They must have really resented the younger fan/creator hippies who came along to replace them.