They didn’t skip those steps. The market just ignored the fact that they’ve been stepping through those options for the last 30 years because that’s what the market as a whole has been doing. As cliche and annoying as it sounds, this is exactly what late stage capitalism looks like. Once growth through sales becomes difficult, usually from approaching monopolistic size in a market, they only have two options left. They can either cut corners and headcount to save on operational expenses or they can decrease revenue growth. Considering the fact that the central thesis of our economy is the idea that infinite growth is not only possible but the only valid pursuit of any corporation it’s easy to guess what they’re going to do when faced with declining sales or any other detriment to growth.