It has been happening - I was there from 2011 to 2022 and it happened steadily for my last five years. The food got worse, they stopped handing out free phones every year, they cut equity refresh multipliers for strongly exceeds ratings, 20% time became 120% time (as noted elsewhere), and -- shortly after I left -- they changed the rating system such that there were real quotas for people being below expectations. Gone were the days they'd randomly hand out Osprey backpacks outside the cafeteria for no reason (I still use mine), or when your manager could send you to space for creating Memegen, or even when Memegen was controlled by its creator and the team he got funded for it, and not HR.

I actually attribute it to Ruth more than Sundar, but who really knows? All I know is I saw a major decline...and people were already saying similar things when I joined, and they were probably right too.

This isn't to say Google isn't still a great employer...but yes, perks and comp declined.

Inflation goes up, perk and comp stay the same, is the same as a % cut

That's bullshit. Inflation-adjusted compensation has been on a decline (nevermind the decision to reschedule the bonus/promotion cycle from January to April).

At least half of the micro-kitchens and cafes have been shutdown. On-site tech support has been dropped. Medical benefits support was changed from Anthem premium to some third-party that is worse than useless. Medical plan costs are up and covered benefits down. Hardware refreshes (even for engineers) has been cancelled, so everyone is working with pre-pandemic hardware.

It happened a decade ago. Google comp is comparable to every other boring tech company.

How are the free massages and dry cleaning treating you?

In nominal terms, yes, not inflation adjusted.