[ocdtrekkie]

One word: Shareholders.

Most of the changes started around 2011, when Larry Page took over as CEO. That's when Google switched from developing open standards to developing walled gardens, killed Google Labs, started disincentivizing 20% time, etc.

(Check out the 10 year stock history for Google, draw a line at April 2011, when Larry Page took over, and notice you have effectively marked the line between Google being a company worth praising, and a company with a meteoric stock price rise.)