I would point out that nearly all those smart people at google are working on product teams, not security teams, and that enough good security researchers still

I would point out that nearly all those smart people at google are working on product teams, not security teams, and that enough good security researchers still go to the NSA. Also, the NSA still tapped google for up to 6 years, and might have continued doing so to this day if it weren't for Snowden. But then again, these weren't in his leaked documents so maybe not.