Installing Windows 8 makes it seem that it is mandatory to create a Microsoft account, however the option to install without one is there, albeit wilfully buried.
Logging out of the Windows Phone Tumblr app involves tapping 'Manage', then a little '...' icon down at the bottom instead of having an option easily accessible from the main view.
In a similar way I get the distinct impression that Google, Facebook and all the others subtly engineer the UI to make it, shall we say, non-obvious that logging out is an option because they want you connected to the mothership at all times.
Am I being paranoid or is this a recognised thing in UI design?
Answer
These are called 'Dark patterns' and these can be used in many different ways to influence users behaviour.
Social networks as you mentioned put the logout button in a separate menu, Facebook in particular hide the 'deactivate' option very deeply in a settings structure. Some people also believe that you can never delete your Facebook account, when in actual fact you can:
Retailers use dark patterns, for example, as a default adding an extended warranty into your basket and making the user delete it if they do not want it. This is indeed clever as it actually gets the customer to think about the extra item rather than immediately dismiss it.
There is a fantastic article here which goes over some examples of dark patterns in various situations:
This is something we see fairly often as well and that is 'down selling' the retailer starts at a higher price point and then works down until the customer decides to purchase, this is present on website as preselecting a higher priced item.
EDIT
Just noticed as well Facebook have added a new feature in their account deactivation screen - giving the user the option to automatically activate their account in x days. A clever way to get users to come back to the site a bit quicker.
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