Nice idealistic thoughts, but the board of directors controls a company. Share holders can't do much except for vote for whomever they put on the proxy.
I think your comment reduces to "The board of directors controls a company, and shareholders have the power to vote for members of the board of directors". I agree. And before this event took place, 59% of shareholders votes were held by Sergey and Larry. This means that Sergey Brin and Larry Page held the majority of shareholder votes.
In theory yes. But let's say 80% of company X shareholders wanted a large one time dividend payout but the executives of company X don't want to do it.
At the next board election they simply choose two candidates but both who agree with what the executives want.