Once a company reaches a certain level of success, it seems that a certain shift becomes inevitable: The quest for infinite growth kicks in, and suddenly, everything that made the company great starts to erode. A once-beloved brand chases new revenue streams at the expense of its most loyal customers, sacrificing quality, usability, and goodwill along the way.
In this post, I’m going to take a look at some of the worst recent offenders: Google, Southwest Airlines, and Netflix. All three have made changes that no one asked for — specifically, changes that make the experience overall worse for customers, but better for each company’s bottom line. At least, better for now.
Google: AI-Pocalypse in Search
Remember when Google Search used to actually, you know, help you find things? That’s getting harder than ever now, thanks to the company’s aggressive push to jam AI into its Search results. “AI Overviews” now dominate the top of the page, often serving up dubious, oversimplified, or even outright wrong information. But according to CEO Sundar Pichai, these AI-generated answers are among the “most popular Search features.”
Popular, Sundar? Really? That’s quite a stretch, considering Google is literally forcing them on every single user. It’s like a restaurant saying, “Wow, our new dish is the most ordered item on the menu!” while conveniently leaving out the fact that it’s the only thing they’re serving.
This relentless AI push is doing considerable damage to Google’s reputation. The search engine used to be the gold standard for finding reliable information. Now, more and more people are looking for alternatives as Google prioritizes AI answers over quality search results. The inescapable fact about Google Search today is that the experience it offers is objectively worse than it did just a few years ago, and that’s directly attributable to greed and an overall lack of vision in Google’s executive suite.
Southwest: The airline you used to love is gone
This next company kicked up a firestorm today. Southwest Airlines has long been known for its customer-friendly policies — things like open seating and free checked bags. But in the last year, the airline has been chipping away at what made it special.
First, Southwest announced the end of open seating, one of their defining features. And now? The airline is ditching its beloved free-checked-bag policy. From a Southwest email sent to customers, which I received today:
“Updates to Checked Baggage Policy
We will offer two free checked bags to Rapid Rewards A-List Preferred Members and Customers traveling on Business Select fares. We will also offer one free checked bag to A-List Members and other select Customers. In addition, Southwest will credit one checked bag for Rapid Rewards Credit Cardmembers. All remaining Customers will pay to check their first and second bags, and we will continue to charge for the third and fourth checked bags. Changes will apply to flights booked on or after May 28.“
Translation: Unless you’re a frequent flyer or paying extra for a premium fare, you’re now paying for bags. In other words, Southwest is doing what every other airline does — but without the first-class seats or extra perks to make it feel worthwhile. Goodbye, the culture you spent decades building up.
A longtime Southwest loyalist vented on Threads:
“Loyal to @southwestair for 35 years – my RR number is 7 digits. I’m done. It’s not just the bags. It’s also:
- Flight credits expire again.
- No changes/refunds for Basic fares.
- Assigned seating pushes anyone but Business Select and A-List Preferred to ‘Standard’ seats in the very back.
I stayed when fares skyrocketed and you lowered points. Now you’re just like the others but more costly. We’ll use our points, then quit. Canceling our Chase SWA card, too.
Greed will kill your airline.”
It’s a textbook example of a company making short-term revenue grabs at the expense of long-term loyalty. Such a shame.
Netflix: More expensive, and less worth it
Finally, let’s talk about Netflix. Is there anyone who thinks Netflix is better today than it was, say, five years ago?
Once the undisputed king of streaming, Netflix has been making increasingly baffling decisions:
- They keep churning out more low-quality movies and TV originals than ever.
- They launched ads (despite their long-time stance against them). Subscribers are flocking to the ad-supported subscription tier, though, not because they love ads but because of the lower price. There is obviously no one on Earth who wants to be accosted by more advertising in their life.
- Netflix also launched a video game service no one really wanted.
- And of course, they keep hiking prices.
The premium subscription tier is now approaching $30/month, which is utterly insane. For comparison, five years ago, Netflix’s standard plan was about half that price.
At what point does the cost outweigh the benefit? For many users, that point is now. The streaming market is more crowded than ever, and with so many other platforms offering competitive pricing and higher-quality programming, Netflix is testing how far customer patience can stretch.
Bottom line: The cycle of short-term thinking continues
It’s a tale as old as capitalism: A company grows, hits a plateau, and instead of maintaining what made it great, it starts making changes to squeeze more revenue out of customers.
The result is stasis — and, even, a slow, inexorable decline. Customers get fed up. Loyalty fades. And eventually, people start looking for alternatives.
Google Search is getting worse. Southwest is alienating loyal travelers. Netflix is raising prices while delivering diminishing returns. All of them, classic examples of enshittification. The question is: When will these companies realize that short-term profit grabs can lead to long-term damage? If history is any indication, the answer is not anytime soon.
