Depression as Disability

I recently spoke with an acquaintance, a very experienced psychologist, who said she had heard that depression is increasingly being used as a justification for getting on permanent disability benefits. What bothered her about this trend is that she sees depression as highly treatable, by multiple methods. With treatment, she said, it should rarely be a permanent condition.

Her suspicion was that the system is being gamed.

Would people on a benefits quest
simply pretend to be depressed?

UPDATE - click below for detailed description of how depression is evaluated by the Social Security Administration:

Depression is a common allegation on Social Security and Supplemental Security Income disability claims. Sometimes depression is found to be disabling, and sometimes it isn’t. It all depends on the severity of the depression. Here is a description at what the Social Security Administration looks at when evaluating the severity of depression to determine eligibility for Social Security disability benefits.