The fall of Travis Kalanick — a cautionary tale of Silicon Valley’s culture of CEO worship: Bloomberg Businessweek’s Eric Newcomer and Brad Stone have penned the most detailed (and by far the most interesting) account of the fall from grace of former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. From the infamous video of Kalanick disparagingly arguing with a driver about Uber’s pricing to engineer Susan Fowler’s blog post (an early spark to the #MeToo campaign fighting harassment at the work place), the piece runs through the laundry list of events that ultimately led to Kalanick’s complete sidelining and resignation from Uber. In a year that saw the company go from the being one of the most profitable startups to industry pariah, the most common thread had been Kalanick’s intransigence, hubris, and refusal to acknowledge that Uber faced more than just a PR problem. This was the largest driver in plummeting morale at the company, a plot by investors to oust him, and alienating his allies.

Beyond being a tale of how culture at a company can be poisoned from the top, the piece reflects on a massive culture shift in the Valley. CEOs of successful companies — once held up as rock stars — are no longer deified. This shift owes a lot to Kalanick. Another culture shift coming from the controversy is how the moral center of the company went from the CEO to the board of directors, ushering the rise of the activist investor. “Apple Inc. once fired Steve Jobs; then he came back and led it to historic greatness. The dismissal of a successful founder has been considered a cardinal sin ever since.” The Steve Jobs spell appears to have been broken.