The common denominator is Larry Page. He has great technical vision, but it's evident that he is an awful judge of character and a poor manager who was out of touch with what was really going on and unable to exert control over his reports. I was there when Eric Schmidt was CEO and don't recall any management issues. Larry takes over, and one of his first big things that happened was the G+ fiasco. Larry just sat back and watched that mess unfold. His whole tenure was marred by hiring sleazy execs like Gundotra, Levandowski, Fadell, and Rubin and letting them do whatever they wanted. Sundar is better, but he lacks the authenticity that Eric had. To be sure, there are lots of reasons not to like Eric, but he was easily the most effective CEO Google had in my mind.

Not the first time I hear something like this.

It looks like many googlers fondly remember the Eric era.

It is a shame Google does not have better executives, for years it has acted like a headless chicken.