Google often feels like a disorganized company with constantly shifting priorities, and a big reason behind that is the lack of top-down initiatives from the CEO. That means the real driving force behind most projects at Google are mid-level executives who show up with grand plans and then leave—either in disgrace or triumph—when those initial plans run their course.
Makes a lot of sense. There doesn't seem to be a unifying strategy behind anything google does. I also think theres a vicious circle going on here: google has a loyalty problem, which could be solved by long term thinking, usually done by loyal employees, but employees don't stick around long enough.