Tom Peters' blog points to a Fortune article on the origin of cubicles. Suffice it to say that like so many things, the reality didn't quite reach what the vision offered.
A couple interesting quotes:
Robert Propst invented nothing so destructive. Yet before he died in 2000, he lamented his unwitting contribution to what he called "monolithic insanity."
and
As Steelcase, Knoll, and Haworth brought their versions to market, they figured out that what businesses wanted wasn't to give employees a holistic experience. The customers wanted a cheap way to pack workers in.