The Intel CEO had always come from engineering fab. This kept the high level decisions made by somebody who understood the product and how it was made.

Then CEO and the head of fab was caught sexually harassing employees. They were both shown the door. So no CEO and the guy who was next in line were gone. They needed the number 2 in fab to take over fab to keep production up.

So the board decided to make the CFO the new CEO. A guy who had a MBA was running a chip company that had only been run by engines.

Profits went up for a while but then Intel struggled to maintain innovation and properly upgraded fab and chip design. Add the increasing skill of rivals and a increase in importance in chips other then server and desktop. which were the only areas Intel was king. It’s a recipe for failure.