Ask HN: Employee at a failing startup

I’ve worked at a startup for less than a year. I joined because the team seemed amazing, the pay was market rate, and the intros were very strong. They are at series A now, less than two dozen employees.

But things seem to be falling apart. A large portion of people have left recently. Other people muse about having nothing at all to do for weeks or months. The CEO is disengaged, and taking meetings with PE, VC, and misc. investors even though allegedly there are 12 months of runway. (No one is supposed to know about these meetings, I found out)

Basic business process surrounding sales and product are nonexistent.

So my question is: for those of you who have worked at early stage startups, how much of this smells, how much of this is growing pains, and how much of this suggests that the company is about to be sold / acquired for scraps? And what did you do about it, or did you just watch it sink?