Is "shallow" your way of saying that the prisoner's dilemma is a foundational result in game theory? Because that's what it is, according to my admittedly inexpert understanding. As with all economic models, the hypothetical game is a gross abstraction. But that's the kind of abstraction that's supposed to make game theory useful to modelers of complex social problems.

According to classic liberals, cooperation in capitalism is supposed to result--via the invisible hand--from the underlying self-interest of individuals. We cooperate strategically, compromising as a means to an end that's still intrinsically anti-social or self-directed.