You're missing the normal ebb and flow of employees in a company. Typically, no one leaves until the first person does, then a few of their friends will leave,

You're missing the normal ebb and flow of employees in a company. Typically, no one leaves until the first person does, then a few of their friends will leave, etc. The first guy to leave pushes the energy levels up enough to catalyze a chain reaction. Meanwhile, the same thing is happening to other companies. It's completely normal for employees to 'graduate' from a company and move on to another. Both google and their employees are reaching different stages in their life cycle where the expectations of each party on the other are no longer optimal. Think of senior and accomplished devs leaving as opportunity to train the next generation of great devs. If they've handled their life cycle well there should be many proteges ready to fill the now empty shoes.