Not defending google. Actually just slightly ranting on a tangent... Google today is not google 5 years ago. There are different employees, different managers, etc. To say that google (an entity with a single agency, as if it was a single person) "hustled" us by going through these changes is just not an accurate statement .
> Why would middle management changes affect their culture and principles significantly?
Because middle management acts as a filter on upper management's view of operations, and a filter between upper management and the people actually doing the work when it comes to directions going the other way. The effect Bruce Webster calls "thermocline of truth" [1] is one significant manifestation of this.
