There are advisers at universities here in Poland who are basically happy for you to write your PhD on your own (with zero supervision), as long as it meets the required quality standard (which can be rather low). This way, he fills his quota of mentees without devoting work to it.
I can say from firsthand experience (albeit a data set of 1) that is happens in the US at the Ph.D level program in a rather well known school with a sculpture of the founder whose shoe is as frequently rubbed for good luck as it is defiled by drunken frat boys.
