I'm a spot, and stalk kind of hunter myself, so a deer drive is not really my cup of tea. With that said though, I've been a part of deer drives quite a few times over the years. I've seen them turn out just like you describe, and a lot worse if you can believe that. I've also seen well executed drives that ended with perfect results meaning one, or in most cases multiple deer all killed cleanly with well placed shots.
A deer drive should never be attempted unless "EVERYBODY" is on the same page, and knows fully well what their roll is. At that point, the shooters get into position, and the drivers slowly "push" an area, not "drive" it. The goal is to hopefully "walk" a deer into position for a shooter. A running deer should never be the goal of a deer drive. Last year I pushed my uncle a deer on several occasions. Here's one example. In one place he got set up, and I slowly stalked fox squirrels with my 32 magnum revolver while working my way towards him through a long narrow woodlot. It took me a good while to cover about 400 yards or so in a loose zig-zag pattern, and when it was all said, and done, I'd collected several squirrels for the pot, and he was gutting a nice big doe that practically walked over top of him. This particular drive could've been completed in less than 30 minutes if we'd had more people, but with the proper plan of action, the results(deer kills) would have been the same.
Personally, I'm not against long range shooting of game, driving, or what ever else a hunter wants to do as long as it results in clean kills, and doesn't endanger somebody else in the process.