[delusional]

> it seems that the political structure in place within Google exists purely to perpetuate it's own existence

This is true of any system. What has changed is the perceived "greatest threat". In the past the greatest threat was that the entire operation ceased to exist. They might be outcompeted or fail to deliver value. Now that Google has firmly cemented itself as a stable monopoly, in the economy but even more importantly in the minds of the manager, the greatest threat is that their department is deemed unimportant and allocated fewer resources.

There's no longer any perceived threat to the collective, so instead the whole thing turn cannibalistic.