I heard something like this a while ago. Paraphrasing: A company is first run by engineers (becomes a well made product that people love), then it is run by MBAs (so that it looks good on the balance sheet), then it is run by lawyers (to extract every bit of value created), then it dies (i.e sustained only by inertia).

But I find it hard to figure out what stage Google is at in this (maybe simplictic) progression.