Larry took over as CEO. This isn't intended as a judgment of his management, but when the company goes from being run by the triumvirate of Larry/Sergey/Eric to just Larry, the culture will necessarily change, and I think you've seen echoes of that both in their external actions and in things ex-Googlers say.
As for the wage suppression agreement - I'm not exactly happy with that, but when I read the Apple/Google e-mails uncovered by discovery, I see a stunning example of realpolitik. Make nice with the 800-lb gorilla until you're ready to compete with him, which Google did with Android. While I'm not exactly thrilled that this came at my expense, I think a world where mobile developers have a viable alternative to going through Apple's App Store is significantly less evil than one in which Apple is the sole determinant of who can launch.