By putting the former head of Pepsi in charge, letting him push out Jobs, and then putting the company in such a dire financial situation that when they rehired Jobs, he had to go to Microsoft for a bailout.
Jobs hired that guy to be CEO.
Jobs hired Sculley as CEO, then disagreed with him, attempted to have the board kick him out, instead had the board turn against Jobs himself, was stripped of his roles, and quit.
They were running Apple to the ground in the 80s and then kicked Steve Jobs out in 1985.
Jobs starter Next which was acquired by Apple in 1997, bringing Jobs back home.
Hence gp’s comment about Apple’s long history of doing this…
I'm not sure doing it once counts as a tradition or long history, but zinger I guess.