I suspect that it's not that Google's feelings on privacy have changed, it's just that they've opted for brevity over flowery language. Saying "we care about privacy" as an internet company is basically content-free, because everyone does it.
Just because everyone says it does not mean that "we care about privacy" is a meaningless statement. It is a statement of conviction and demonstrates respect and care for its users. We can only imagine why this statement was deleted. On the one hand, Google's privacy policy says "we care about privacy" yet, on the other hand, certain aspects of Google's present business practices and future business plans as well as certain statements of Google's CEO could be construed to suggest the opposite. Probably Google's lawyers recommended removing this statement to avoid having users hold Google to account for possible contradictions between its privacy policy and its business practices.
I suspect you're right, but it doesn't change the impact it had on me to see right there in the diff that they removed it. I'm not going to ditch Google now just because they removed a phrase from their privacy policy.