The people who "got" the community on SO and how it worked have long since left or had their ability to advocate get squashed in the corporate structure.
The people who are there with influence on direction have a very different view of what SO (and the rest of SE) should be. Most employees at corporate do not use any of the public sites in any way, shape or form and are disconnected about what the users and curators there need.
And so, you get continuous improvement - on a vision that the unpaid volunteers who maintain the sites feel is wrong or counter productive.
