This always happens when large companies assert more control in the form of analytic analysis on the productivity of virtually everything. When you are building a pipeline which must be efficient, analytic analysis / statistical analysis plays a huge role in improving efficiency, but it's also a stifling factor when it pertains to the creativity of new solutions.
Google previously focused more on the creativity of new better solutions to an array of different verticals. Now they are focusing on the creativity of their own "super-man-team" instead of the "our peoples make crazy stuff, we hire amazing people" and let them go at it in their spare time and build innovative projects.
Maybe this time marks a period in Google's future where they stop innovating in a disruptive fashion.