In this case, it's not a new thing ... back in 2005 (yes 21 years ago), people talked about the achievements of Noam Shazeer at Google (and Jeff Dean and Sanjay, etc)
I always appreciated Jeff having a level head ... which this article seems to confirm:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/google-cracks-down-posts...
I wonder if the ideological censorship described in your link is part of why Noam decided to leave.
Shitposting about politics on internal boards is "having a level head"?
I've seen engmisc and industryinfo, and I agree they are sometimes insufferable but having a level head would be ignoring them.
Reread the comment: Shazeer was the one shitposting about politics, not Jeff Dean. Dean called him out over it.
Oh, my bad, I mixed up the names on the comment. Yeah, Dean did always seem to have a level head from what little I've seen.