I think this is less of a thing that is specifically endemic to Intel as much as it's just a "big, old company" thing. Companies become massive, they eventually

I think this is less of a thing that is specifically endemic to Intel as much as it's just a "big, old company" thing. Companies become massive, they eventually lose their visionary leadership, and then they spend the proceeding few decades lumbering along just based on inertia. These companies continue to employ a lot of smart people and have exciting things going on in some components, but the corporate culture makes it hard to get a consistent positive execution. Intel has been sitting pretty for the last 20 years because chip design is not something that lends itself to modern patterns of disruption. I'm sure it will happen some day, but for now, Intel has kept its position mostly due to the difficulty of the niche than any intrinsic competitive edge. The point being that Intel itself is not uniquely terrible; they're routinely terrible. They're just positioned in a space that's much more hostile to less-terrible entrants, so capable people do something that is less hard.